reza samarei

 Foreign body aspirations (FBAs) comprise the majority of accidental childhood deaths. The present study aimed to investigate the location and types of aspirated foreign bodies in hospitalized patients’ airways.

 In this cross-sectional study, the medical records of all consecutive patients with a primary diagnosis of FBA were reviewed retrospectively from 2019 to 2022. We extracted demographic profile (age and gender), type of aspirated foreign body, clinical manifestation at the time of presentation, clinical signs according to physical examination, and the time duration between presentation to hospital and removal of aspirated foreign body.

 Of 101 patients, 65 were male, and most were under 4 years old. Nuts (53.5%) and organic bits (30.7%) were the most common aspirated foreign bodies. The bronchus (69.4%) was the most common location of aspirated foreign bodies. Most of the organic pieces (96.8%) and nuts (87%) were seen in the age group below 4 years old and also most of the cases of plastic pieces were related to children aged 4 to 18 years (P<0.001). Cough and shortness of breath (68.3%) were the most common clinical complaints. Most patients with FBA in the trachea (65%) and bronchus (74%) had a normal clinical examination and a significant difference was observed between the clinical signs and location of the foreign body (P<0.001). Fifty-four patients (53.5%) underwent foreign body intervention and removal less than 24 hours after aspiration.

 A high frequency of FBA in children, especially in infants and toddlers, is due to starting feeding. It is very important to consider the differences in the types and locations of the aspirated object. Therefore, early rigid bronchoscopy is effective for inhaled foreign body removal with fewer complications.

Tympanoplasty is a widely performed surgical procedure for chronic otitis media (COM), and efforts are being made globally to establish standardized surgical techniques. This study sought to compare the postoperative outcomes of endoscopic and microscopic approaches in COM patients.

This randomized clinical trial of an open-label design was performed on 34 patients who were candidates for tympanoplasty surgery due to chronic otitis media in Urmia Imam Khomeini hospital from April to December 2022. Patient allocation was performed by grouping participants according to odd or even numbers, with half assigned to the endoscopic group and the remaining half assigned to the microscopic group.  Demographic data, pain severity, operation duration, and graft success rate preoperatively and 3 and 6 months postopera tively were evaluated. Independent samples t-test, Chi-square test, and SPSS version 21were used to analyze data. A P-value ˂0.05 was considered statistically significant.

No significant difference was reported in terms of pre and postoperative pure tone audiometry conditions between the two groups. Significantly lower operation time (65.83 ± 11.6 minutes) was reported in the endoscopic group compared to the microscopic group (P=0.001). The graft success rate in the microscopic and endoscopic groups was 77.8% and 75%, respectively, which was not statistically significantly different (P = 0.84). A significant difference was observed between microscopic and endoscopic groups in the pain score of patients immediately after surgery (5.66 ±18.1 and 3.75 ± 1, retrospectively) and one day after surgery (5.50 ± 1.9  and 3.62 ± 0.95, respectively) (P < 0.001).

Endoscopic tympanoplasty technique has demonstrated comparable efficacy in improving hearing loss as the conventional method. However, its advantages in terms of reduced operating time and postoperative pain suggest that it may emerge as the preferred approach for tympanoplasty surgery.

Headache has been a common problem for humans since ancient times. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of ear, nose, and throat diseases in patients with headache.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we reviewed medical records of 100 patients presenting with headache to the ENT clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia, Iran, between 2019 and 2021. The type of headache (primary or secondary) was diagnosed based on medical history, clinical examinations, and paraclinical examinations (CT scan) and completion of a checklist for each patient. Chi-square and independent t-tests were used to analyze data. The p value < 0.05 was considered significant.

Of 100 patients, 58 (58%) had primary headaches with a mean age of 1.72 ± 4.77 years, and 42 (42%) had secondary headaches with a mean age of 5.57 ± 1.43 years (p < 0.01). There was a significant difference in the type of headache and location of pain in patients except for the back of the head and the top of the head (p < 0.05). Of the 58 patients with primary headaches, 26 (44.8%), and of the 42 patients with secondary headaches, 10 (23.8%) woke up from sleep due to headache (p < 0.03). Of the 58 patients with primary headaches, 38 (65.5%), and of the 42 patients with secondary headaches, 12 (28.6%) had their headache worsened by light and noise (p < 0.001).

Of all patients, 42% had secondary headaches, which most commonly had symptoms of sinus pain. These patients were treated by an otolaryngologist. Patients with non-sinus headaches were referred to a neurologist.

Dysphonia is a common voice disorder that affects about one-third of the population at some point in their lives.1 The terms dysphonia and hoarseness are frequently used interchangeably. However, dysphonia is a disorder characterized by changes in vocal quality, pitch, and loudness or vocal effort. Patients with dysphonia are unable to communicate properly, and their voice-related quality of life (VR-QOL) is negatively affected.

Epistaxis is defined as acute hemorrhage from the nostril, nasal cavity, or nasopharynx. It is a frequent Emergency Department (ED) complaint and often causes significant anxiety in patients and clinicians. Accordingly, this study aimed to compare the administration of topical Phenylephrine with topical Tranexamic Acid (TXA) in management of epistaxis.
This double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted on 120 patients with epistaxis referred to Imam-Khomeini University in Urmia, Iran. Patients who met the inclusion criteria, were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups. Sixty patients in the intervention group received one pledget soaked with TXA for 10 minutes in each nasal cavity. Sixty patients in the control group received Phenylephrine 0.5% with the same way. The cessation of bleeding in ED were evaluated by 10 minutes after the administration of the above-mentioned drugs.
Nasal hemorrhage was stopped in 17 out of 60 patients of control group received Phenylephrine (28.3%) while in the intervention group received TXA, 40 out of 60 patients (66.7%) experienced the cessation of their nosebleed that the difference was clinically and statistically significant (P According to study results, topical application of injectable form of TXA (500mg/5mL) can be used as an ideal drug in management of epistaxis in prehospital and hospital settings and subsequently leads to a reduction of extra costs and length of stay in the EDs.

Ear infection is one of the most important infectious chronic diseases throughout the world, and it is likely that the use of tools such as hands-free causes the transfer of microbial flora and aids the activity of pathogenic microbes. This study compares the ear microbial flora of hands-free users with those who have never used the hands-free in Urmia.
In this study, regardless of the gender, the ears of 24 people (within the range of 20 to 30 years old) who have continuously used hands-free for 3 years and also the ears of 24 people who have never used hands-free were sampled. The samples were cultured in general and specific environment and by using diagnostic tests, the bacteria were identified.
The bacteria isolated from the ears of those who have never used hands-free included: Lactobacillusus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, staphylococcus saprophyticus and non-hemolytic Staphylococcus, and the bacteria isolated from the ears of hands-free users included: Staphylococcus epidermidis, staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus aurous, D-non hemolytic streptococcus and viridians streptococcus.
This investigation showed that the use of hands-free causes the transfer of the type and abundance of microbial flora in ears. The result of Chi-square data analysis (P