We present the case of a 55-year-old man who presented with intermittent, profuse bleeding from the ear five years following radiotherapy for a nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He had developed osteoradionecrosis of the temporal bone, and the bleeding was shown to originate from an aneurysm of the internal carotid artery within his temporal bone. This has not previously been reported as a complication of radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal cancer.

Two axillary lymph nodes from a patient who underwent modified radical mastectomy for carcinoma of the breast showed benign nevus cells in the fibrous capsule and within afferent lymphatics. Subsequently, an intradermal nevus from the area of drainage of the axillary lymph nodes was excised, which showed groups of nevus cells lying within small lymphatic channels. It is postulated that the nevus cells in the lymph node capsule could represent benign metastases from the intradermal nevus.

A rare complication relating to the use of a Foley catheter in the control of posterior epistaxis is described. The balloon failed to deflate after the catheter had been in place for 32 hours and per-oral removal was required.

Of patients patch tested at a contact dermatitis clinic between 1985 and 1986, 22.5% (379/1685) had medicament sensitivity. The prevalence in men was 22.8% (193/847) and in women, 22.1% (186/838) (difference not significant). The rate appears to increase with age, 17.9% (216/1205) for patients less than 40 years old and 34.0% (163/480) for patients over 39 years old (difference, p less than 0.001). The differences in prevalence between Chinese (22.8%), Malay (21.3%), Indians (20.4%), and others (33.3%) were not statistically significant. Common sensitizers included neomycin (7.8%), proflavine (7.1%), clioquinol (4.3%), colophony (3.3%), and wool alcohol (2.7%). Proflavine sensitivity was significantly more common in men (9.9%) than women (4.2%) (p less than 0.001). Most dermatitis occurs on the limbs (upper limbs, 44.3%; lower limbs, 43.0%). Facial dermatitis was more common in women (37.4%) than men (19.2%) (difference not significant).

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