BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESTo study the clinical aspects of benign lesions of pinna and to evaluate aetiopathological factors, prevalence and management options.

BACKGROUND Hoarseness of voice is a very common symptom and needs thorough clinical examination and investigation to determine the underlying cause in every patient. The spectrum of the symptom ranges from minor infections to life threating malignancies. Acute onset causes may be due to secondary viral infections, voice abuse, smoking, trauma to the larynx during thyroid surgeries. Chronic onset may be due to vocal polyp, vocal cord nodules, laryngeal papillomatosis, laryngeal neoplasms, tumours of the vocal cord, functional dysphonia, smoking, gastrooesophageal reflux, malignancy of thyroid, oesophagus, lungs and neurological involvement by systemic disease like diabetes and TB. We wanted to evaluate the common causes of hoarseness of voice. METHODS This was a longitudinal study conducted among 100 patients with benign laryngeal lesions attending the Department of ENT-HNS of Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, from 1st December 2015 to 31st November 2016. A detailed history including information on patient's demographics, clinical presentation, history of trauma, along with history of associated medical and surgical condition was obtained. A thorough systemic examination and laryngeal examination was done. RESULTS Male:Female ratio was noted to be 1.7:1. Labourers constituted the single largest group of patients comprising of about 36% of cases. Three fourth of patients were from the rural area. Duration of hoarseness ranged from 1 day (acute onset) to 5 yrs. (mean-3 months). Septic foci in oral cavity and oropharynx were noted in 42% cases. Apart from change in voice other common symptoms were cough, fever and vocal fatigue. Signs of chronic laryngitis were noted in majority of the cases (22%). CONCLUSIONS The spectrum of etiological factors for hoarseness varies from minor functional voice disorders to major pathological conditions such as malignancy. Septic foci are important predisposing factor for chronic laryngitis.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The most common symptom of hypothyroidism regarding ear, nose and throat is hearing insufficiency accompanied with cochleovestibular symptoms such as tinnitus, dizziness.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a hospital based observational clinical study conducted in Rajarajeswari medical college between December 2016 to June 2018. Patients with hypothyroidism attending department of ENT-HNS that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Patients were subjected to pure tone audiometry, thyroid function test after detailed history and physical examination. PTA was recorded and average of 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz were taken as the pure tone average.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Results:</strong> 150 patients were included in the study. Mean age of patients with hearing loss was 37.2 years. 84.3% were females. 41 patients presented to us with unilateral hearing loss and 10 patients had bilateral hearing loss. 43 (84.3%) patients had mild degree of hearing loss, 8 (15.7%) had moderate hearing loss. Patients with hearing loss had altered TSH levels. Significant correlation (p&lt;0.001) was found between hearing loss and duration of hypothyroidism, mean TSH levels.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It was found that hy­pothyroidism affects the hearing producing hearing impairment, ranging from mild to moderate in severity and had significant correlation between duration of hypothyroidism and mean TSH levels with the severity of hearing loss.<strong></strong></p>

BACKGROUND: FNAC is a simple, cost effective, readily repeated and quick to perform procedure, with excellent patient compliance. It is, however, not without limitations related to specimen adequacy, sampling techniques, and overlapping cytological features between benign and malignant follicular neoplasm. Here arises the need for Histopathological examination (HPE), as it is considered the final diagnostic test. OBJECTIVE: This study aims at correlating the cytological diagnosis with the final histopathological diagnosis to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of smears and thereby its role in the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid swellings. METHODS: Data for the study was collected from patients undergoing thyroidectomy in Department of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery at Raja Rajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore. The study period was from 1 st October 2013 -30 th September 2014. Fine needle aspiration cytology of the swelling was done on OPD basis for all patients presenting with goitre. Thyroidectomy specimens preserved in 10% formalin was sent for histopathology examination. RESULTS: A total of 157 patients was evaluated, out of which 118 patients underwent FNAC. 15 were unsatisfactory aspirates. A total of 57 cases were operated specimens were available for histopathologic examination. The mean age of patients were 36.9 years. The ratio between female to males was 7.1:1. The sensitivity of FNAC was 87.5%, the Specificity was 100%, accuracy was 98.2%, and the positive predictive value of a positive test for malignancy was 100%. CONCLUSION: FNAC of thyroid lesions has been shown to be safe, simple, cost effective and accurate method for management of palpable thyroid lesions. It not only facilitates the communication among cytopathologists, surgeons, radiologists, and endocrinologists but also facilitate research into the epidemiology, molecular biology, pathology and diagnosis of thyroid diseases.

BACKGROUND The head and neck are the regions that present both high anatomical and functional difficulties, making the precise diagnosis a challenging task. Meticulous clinical history and physical examination may suggest the clinical diagnosis. Imaging is increasingly performed to assess the anatomical extent of involvement before any form of treatment and also helps in the differential diagnosis. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is gold standard for diagnosis of any neck mass. Aims and Objectives-The objective was to assess the accuracy of CT/ MRI scan and FNAC in prediction of neck masses, so that a suitable surgical neck dissection can be carried out.