Endoscopic diagnosis and repair of cerebrospinal fluid fistulas using fluorescein intrathecally has high success rate and low complication rate.

Background: Successful speech rehabilitation has a great impact on the quality of life in totally laryngectomized patients. Objectives: The aim of this paper was to compare the self-assessed voice handicap of totally laryngectomized patients with two different methods of alaryngeal speechesophageal (ES) and tracheoesophageal speech (TES). Method: The research comprised 83 totally laryngectomized, disease-free patients, split into two groups. The first group included 43 participants with successfully rehabilitated ES, and the second group included 40 participants with successfully established TES after secondary implantation of Provox 2 TM voice prosthesis. All subjects filled in the Serbian version of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-30). The results (overall score and three VHI subscales) were analyzed and compared with those of the subjects of both groups. The impact of age in the subgroups (< 65 years old and ≥65 years old) and previous irradiation on the examined VHI values were also analyzed. Results: The median value of the overall VHI score in the participants with TES was 29.03 ± 23.479 (range: 0-97), and in the participants with ES it was 64.51 ± 21.089 (range: 19-99). The VHI scores (overall and three VHI subscales) were significantly higher in participants with ES compared to those with TES (p < 0.01), indicating a larger voice handicap. No significant difference was found in the overall VHI score and VHI subgroups in terms of age subgroups and previous irradiation (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our data reveal a significantly higher voice handicap in participants with ES compared to the TES group, with a large interindividual variation within both groups. VHI values are not significantly different between the two age subgroups, nor are they significantly influenced by irradiation.

Rhinomanometry significantly correlates with the subjective nose breathing assessment and it can be used as a reliable and objective indicator of nose breathing in everyday clinical practice. Acoustic rhinometry, on the other hand, which does not correlate with a subjective nose breathing assessment could have a greater significance in a scientific sense than in clinical applying.

Introduction. The aim of this paper is to determine the influence of nasal septum deformity degree on the subjective nasal breathing assessment as well as the existence of correlation between one side of the nose with nasal septum deformity and the subjective feeling of difficulty in breathing on that side in the subjects with different degrees of nasal septum deviation. Material and Methods. The research included 90 randomly chosen patients, who claimed to have nasal breathing difficulties. Every patient assessed subjectively which side of the nose made breathing difficult and scored the breathing on that side from 0 to 10 cm on the visual analogue scale. Results. The patients from the third group described their breathing as the most difficult, while the subjects from the first group claimed that their nasal breathing problems were the least difficult. The subjective feeling of heavy nasal breathing on the deformed nasal septum side was significantly different in all groups (H= 38.466, p= 0.000). In the second and the third group of patients there was a significant correlation between the deformed side of the nose and the subjective heavy breathing on that side (p< 0.05), whereas this correlation was not found in the first group (p> 0.05). Conclusion. The subjective feeling of difficulty in breathing on the deformed side of the nose is intensified with the degree of the nasal septum deformity, thus this feeling was reported only by the subjects with a higher degree of the nasal septum deformity.