A small percentage of patients with acute frontal or ethmoid sinusitis develop orbital, cranial or CNS complications. At selected University of Tennessee affiliated hospitals, from 1974 to 1978, there were 14 such cases which required major surgical intervention in addition to intensive medical therapy. The most common complication in this series was subperiosteal orbital abscess. The most common bacterial isolates were streptococcus and staphylococcus. A discussion of complications associated with frontal and ethmoid sinusitis is included as well as recommendations for medical and surgical management.

Injuries from cocaine abuse are often seen and have been reported more often with the introduction of crack cocaine. Burns of the upper aerodigestive tract have been reported but no reports of esophageal obstruction have been located. We report ingestion of a foreign body from smoking crack cocaine and our management. A review of other possible aspiration and ingestion injuries is included.

Toxic shock syndrome is a recently discovered and widely publicized disease found to occur in young menstruating women and thought to be associated with the use of vaginal tampons. To this date, there has been no known report of a similar disease being caused by nasal or sinus packing. The following is a discussion of the toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and a presentation of two cases that demonstrated a striking similarity to that disease.

No abstract