<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Oral carcinoma is among the most prevalent malignancies of head and neck region and is often diagnosed in the advanced stage with significant morbidity and treatment cost. Thus, there is a need for early detection of oral premalignant and malignant lesions. Toluidine blue staining can be used for early detection of these lesions.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> The study included 50 patients with clinically suspicious oral premalignant and malignant lesions. These lesions were subjected to toluidine blue staining and biopsy. Diagnoses were confirmed by histopathological examination.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Sensitivity and specificity of toluidine blue for oral premalignant lesions was 92.30% and 80% respectively with the positive predictive value of 92.30%, negative predictive value of 80% and accuracy of 88.88%. Sensitivity and specificity of toluidine blue for oral malignant lesions was 96.30% and 80% respectively with the positive predictive value of 96.30%, negative predictive value of 80% and accuracy of 93.75%.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The simplicity of toluidine blue staining and its accuracy suggest that it can be a useful adjunctive tool to diagnosis of oral lesions. Results should be carefully evaluated and correlated with clinical findings and histopathological diagnosis.</p>

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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in the diversion of all the resources, attention, and energy of the medical personnel and administration towards the management of COVID-19 patients. This resulted in unforeseen difficulties and hazards for non-COVID-19 patients in accessing healthcare professionals and facilities. Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and repeated lockdowns on the non-COVID patients; to understand the social, psychological, and medical issues faced by them; and propose solutions for difficulties faced by this specific cohort of patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study on all non-COVID patients reporting for non-COVID-19 illnesses. We conducted the data analysis by comparing the trends for 15 months each in the pre-pandemic (1 January 2019 to 31 March 2020) and pandemic periods (1 April 2020 to 30 June 2021). Results: There was a 65.92% decrease in Out Patient Department (OPD) attendance, a 56.05% decrease in admissions, and a 90.33 % decrease in elective surgical procedures in non-COVID-19 patients. However, there was a significant increase in emergency surgeries by 62.16%. Conclusion: There has been a significant albeit much-needed diversion of time, energy, and resources to manage COVID-19 patients in recent times. This has led to a paucity of care opportunities for non-COVID-19 patients, which has been further compounded by the frequent lockdowns. We attempted to understand the impact of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 patients, particularly in peripheral hospitals in Hilly Terrains. We propose the solutions to tackle these issues and describe our experience with them.

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COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is potentially dangerous to neonatal hearing, as it is the period of organogenesis, and associated hyperthermia may cause vascular damage, disruption of cell migration, and death of the dividing neuroblasts. To investigate the possible association between neonatal hearing loss and gestational mild COVID-19 infection. A prospective case-control study was conducted at a tertiary healthcare centre in North India from March 2020 to Oct 2022. Cases included the neonates born to COVID-19-positive mothers were subjected to hearing screening at 1, 3 and 6 months using otoacoustic emission (OAE) and automated auditory brainstem response (AABR). Similar protocol was applied to controls, i.e., neonates borne to mothers with no gestational history of COVID infection. Results were analyzed statistically. Our study reported that the statistical difference between groups A (n = 942) and B (n = 942) for gestational COVID-19 infection and neonatal hearing loss was insignificant at 1 month ( p -value 0.272 for OAE and p -value 0.634 for AABR) and also insignificant at 3 and 6 months ( p -value 0.679 for AABR, for both). The association between gestational mild COVID-19 infection during gestation and neonatal hearing loss is statistically insignificant at initial screening as well as sequential screenings.