Forty children (age group four to 12 years) undergoing adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy were subjected to pre- and post-operative polysomnography. Thorough clinical evaluation and X-ray soft tissue nasopharynx lateral view was carried out for all the patients. The tonsils were clinically graded from grade I to IV, whereas the adenoids were measured radiographically (using three different measurements) in all children. Thirty out of 40 (75 per cent) children presented with predominant obstructive symptoms, out of whom 22 (73.3 per cent) were found to have obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), i.e. apnoea index > five per hour. The remaining 10 (25 per cent) had predominantly inflammatory symptoms on presentation and out of these two (20 per cent) were found to have OSA. Relative adenoid size expressed as a ratio between the distance from the point of maximum thickness of adenoids along a line drawn along a straight part of the basiocciput and distance from the posterior nasal spine to the antero-inferior edge of the sphenobasioccipital synchondrosis, was found to have a highly significant correlation with the grade of OSA. In our study, all patients with this ratio greater than 0.64 were found to have OSA. No correlation between tonsil size and grade of OSA was found. There was a highly significant improvement in polysomnographic scores following surgery in all patients.

Teratomas of the head and neck due to their obscure origin, bizarre microscopic appearance, unpredictable behaviour and often dramatic clinical presentation are a clinical surprise. This article focuses on pediatric head and neck teratomas and on their diversity and rarity and also reviews the recent terminology of this group of tumours.

An unusual case of Echinococcus oligarthrus infestation of the submandibular salivary gland is reported. Echinococcus oligarthrus is a rare variant of the Echinococcus species affecting humans. To the best of our knowledge only one case of submandibular hydatid cyst caused by Echinococcus oligarthrus has been reported. A 28-year-old female patient was admitted with a progressively increasing swelling in the left submandibular region of four years' duration. There was no pulmonary or hepatic involvement. The present case of submandibular hydatid cyst caused by Echinococcus oligarthrus is of interest because of the unusual site of the disease.

Lipoma of deep lobe of parotid gland is a rare clinical entity. Less than 10 cases have been reported in the literature in our knowledge. Because of their rarity, they are not often considered in the differential diagnosis of parotid tumors. A case of 45-year-old man with an unusually large deep lobe lipoma of parotid gland is presented in this article which was surgically managed by total conservative parotidectmy. The clinical picture, radiological and histopathological features of this entity is being discussed here. Review of literature of this clinical situation has been presented in the present article.