Swallow function recovery postsurgery is better in patients with higher FOIS presurgery, smaller tumors, and no requirement for radiotherapy.

Purpose of the Study: To understand the reasons for charm needle insertions, chemical constituents of charm needles and their significance to magnetic resonance imaging. Materials and Methods: Confidential interviews were used to collect information from charm needle wearers. Two attempts at surgical removal of charm needles were carried out. Charm needle samples were chemically analyzed using EPMA method. A review of literature on the possible complications of charm needles in relation to MRI was made. Results: Patients had varied reasons for wearing charm needles including to be physically attractive, to overcome personal problems and for protection. Charm needles were made of gold alloy consisting of gold (85.2%-88.6%), copper (9.3%-10.8%) and trace elements of aluminium and silver. As such, MRI may not be a hazard to charm needle wearers given the fact that gold is non-ferromagnetic. However, artefacts may potentially distort the MR imaging. Conclusion: A tactful manner in handling these patients may be to ignore the needles unless a clinical need warrants intervention. The surgical removal of these needles may be a straightforward procedure, but the localization is usually a challenging task. At present, the pertinent literature does not contain carefully controlled studies that demonstrate the absolute safety of charm needle exposure to powerful magnetic fields.

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Objectives: Many conditions of the oral and maxillofacial region require hospitalization and in-patient care. The average length of stay (LOS) of these patients varies and is usually affected by multiple confounding variables. However, even with an increasing number of hospital admissions, published evidence on the factors that affect the LOS of oral and maxillofacial patients is lacking. Therefore, this study assessed the LOS of in-patients at the oral and maxillofacial surgery department of a government-funded, multi-specialty hospital in Malaysia, based on their reasons for admission and other factors. Materials and Methods: Our samples were collected retrospectively over a 5-year period and included patients with maxillofacial infections, posttrauma stabilization, facial bone fracture surgery, benign and malignant lesion surgery, dentoalveolar surgery, and other maxillofacial surgeries as reasons for admission. Factors potentially affecting LOS were also recorded, and their significance was determined using multiple logistic regression analyses. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 1,380 patients were included in this study. Most (84.5%) of our in-patients were of Malay ethnicity, and males outnumbered females in our sample by 502 subjects. The median LOS of our in-patients was 3 days. Sex, ethnicity, age, reason for admission, and American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification were factors that significantly affected LOS. Conclusion: The median LOS reported in this study was 3 days. LOS was significantly affected by sex, ethnicity, age, reason of admission and ASA classification.