This Month in Laryngoscope

Small Vestibular Schwannomas With No Hearing:Comparison of Functional Outcomes inStereotactic Radiosurgery and Microsurgery

The authors report dysequilibrium encountered in a cohort of 31patients treated for small (less than 1.5 cm) vestibular schwanno-mas. All patients had nonserviceable hearing. Stereotactic radio-surgery (SRS) was employed for 12 patients while 10 underwentmicrosurgery (MS). The UCLA dizziness questionnaire was used tocompare the two groups. Treatment with SRS resulted in signifi-cantly worse long-term balance disorders. See page 1909

Errors With Concentrated Epinephrinein Otolaryngology

An online voluntary survey of members of the American Academyof Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery demonstrated that 48respondents had experienced an error in epinephrine dosing duringtheir career. Sixteen respondents (12.7%) had a problem with mis-administration during the past year. The authors urge double-checking epinephrine dilution prior to administration in all clinicalsettings. Other system modifications are advocated. See page 1928

Delineating the Hearing Loss in Children WithEnlarged Vestibular Aqueduct

To better understand the hearing loss related to enlarged vestib-ular aqueduct (EVA), the authors retrospectively studied 54 chil-dren with EVA. Cochlear malformation was observed in 43% ofinvolved ears. All patients with EVA had hearing loss. The majorityof patients had no obvious genetic cause. Conductive hearing lossor mixed hearing loss was observed in 80% of children. Theauthors urge bone conduction thresholds be routinely evalu-ated at all frequencies because air bone gaps can frequently beseen. See page 2062

A Genomewide Screen for Chronic RhinosinusitisGenes Identifies a Locus on Chromosome 7q

The authors conducted a population-based study of 291 individ-uals with similar ancestry living on communal farms. Criteria forchronic rhinosinusitis was encountered in 8 subjects. The stron-gest linkage to chronic rhinosinusitis occurs between 7q31.1through 7q32.1. This suggests that a locus in this region influencesdisease susceptibility. See page 2067

On the CoverThe figures on the cover are brain activation mapsacquired non-invasively with functional magnetic res-onance imaging. Healthy subjects were scanned dur-ing a finger tapping task (red) and auditory stimulation(yellow) as well as during a phonation (purple) andintonation task (blue). Activations are overlaid on theinflated representation of the left hemisphere shownfrom a lateral (left column) and medial point of view(right column). There are distinct motor representa-tions for the phonation and intonation tasks. For fur-ther details on this investigation, see the article onpage 2091 by Olthoff et al.

Laryngoscope 118: November 2008 In this Issue1907