Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a symptom complex characterized by mucosal, ocular, and cutaneous lesions. Prodromal symptoms of upper respiratory infection or pharyngitis are most common. These are followed by target lesions of skin, sloughing of musous membranes, and ocular inflammation. Twenty-three cases are presented. Most patients (61 percent) were between 10 and 39 years of age. Relapses occurred in three patients. Five patients developed pneumonia, and there were two fatalities. Over one-half of the patients had serious ocular complications. The etiology of this syndrome is uncertain. Multiple allergic factors, drugs (especially long-acting sulfonamides), and infectious agents (most recently mycoplasma pneumoniae) have been implicated. This study does not support any single cause. The use of systemic steroids is generally accepted by most authors. The death rate in this study (10 percent) is essentially unchanged from early reports on patients without steroid therapy. The complications rate directly attributable to steroids is significant in this study group. The major complications of this syndrome are ocular. Aggressive topical management of ocular inflammation is required; however, the morbidity rate remains high despite these measures. The otolaryngologist should be aware of this syndrome as the early symptoms, and the acute complications may require his awareness of the natural and treated courses of this disease.

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The purpose of this study was to assess the value of computerized axial tomography (CAT) in canine larynges that exhibit controlled surgical defects, and in 18 patients with biopsy-proved epidermoid carcinoma of the larynx who were studied prospectively. Five canine larynges with sequential surgical defects of 0 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm were studied by CAT in order to evaluate our ability to identify defects in the thyroid cartilage. A 5-mm collimator with overlapping sections at 3-mm intervals and a 13-mm collimator with 5-mm overlapping sections were both used for each stage of the experiment. Results show significantly improved resolution with the 5-mm collimator compared with the 13-mm unit. In the human study group, results demonstrated excellent (100%) soft-tissue tumor site correlation. It appears from this study that we still lack a highly reliable radiographic technique for evaluating preoperatively with accuracy the integrity of the thyroid cartilage in the patient with carcinoma of the larynx.