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Objectives: Substernal goiters often require surgery, yet their location presents challenges. Most can be removed via transcervical approach, but extent and relationship to mediastinal structures can merit consideration of sternotomy and assistance of colleagues. Despite widespread use in sinus surgery and previous literature reports, microdebrider use to facilitate transcervical removal of substernal goiters has not been broadly adopted. Our objective was to report our experience with use of the soft tissue shaver to facilitate substernal goiter deliver through a cervical incision in a community-based thyroidectomy practice. Methods: We reviewed thyroidectomy cases performed by a general otolaryngologist (D.M.Y.) in a community setting from January 2017 through December 2019. Four patients required microdebrider use for intracapsular debulking of substernal goiter to allow for transcervical removal. We discuss pre- and perioperative considerations, present computed tomography (CT) and operative images, review surgical technique, and report estimated blood loss (EBL), surgical time (T), complications, and length of stay. Results: Average EBL was 237.5 ml (range 100-500 ml). Average T was 137 minutes (range 121-170 minutes). No patients required sternotomy. One patient developed postoperative hematoma requiring evacuation and cautery of a bleeding site. No other complications were encountered, all patients were discharged after overnight observation. Conclusions: The microdebrider can be safely utilized by general otolaryngologists to facilitate transcervical removal of substernal goiters. Adoption of this familiar tool for a different surgical application can reduce the need for sternotomy, assistance of colleagues, or referral to a tertiary care center, with associated decrease in risk, morbidity, surgical time, length of stay, and cost, and improved patient convenience and satisfaction.

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OBJECTIVE: The PN Naloxone Nasal Swab (Pocket Naloxone Corp., Bethesda, MD) is a swab optimized for drug delivery and intended for use by non-medical personnel for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose. The aim of this study (PNC-20-003) is to determine the safety of this nasal swab in a real-world environment. METHODS: This was a single-institution, quantitative-qualitative prospective trial performed at an outpatient clinic. Patients with normal or abnormal nasal structure were recruited. A non-medically trained individual placed the nasal (soaked in fluorescein dye) on each side of the patient's nose. Endoscopy with recording was performed before and after swab placement. An independent reviewer rated degree of staining, mucosal bleeding, and trauma at nasal subsites. RESULTS: Videos from 32 nasal cavities (16 participants) were reviewed. All cavities had high intensity staining at the septum and the inferior turbinate. No patients had staining within the middle meatus, agger nasi, or olfactory regions. In patients with normal anatomy, obstructive nasal anatomy or prior nasal surgery, all cavities had staining near the nasal septum. Only 7 cavities (22 %) had minor bleeding defined as ooze that stopped in 1-2min, and 3 (9 %) had minor trauma defined as mucosal disruption less than 5mm. There were no significant differences in comparing pre- and post-swab nasal cavity, trauma, or bleeding exams. CONCLUSIONS: These study results showed that this swab is atraumatic to the nasal mucosal membranes when administered by non-medical personnel. Analysis suggests contact with targeted sites for drug absorption regardless of anatomy.

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BACKGROUND: Signs of inflammation are commonly encountered during endoscopic examination of the Eustachian tube (ET) region. The clinical applicability of these findings may be enhanced by use of a standardized assessment score. METHODS: Digital video recordings were obtained of 50 nasal endoscopy examinations of the nasopharyngeal portion of the ET. Four fellowship-trained rhinologists independently reviewed the videos with regard to specific physical findings: edema of the ET torus, erythema of the ET torus, exudate at the ET orifice, and presence of tubal tonsil. Scoring of this Endoscopic Evaluation of the Eustachian Tube (3ET) was reported using both 2-point and 3-point scales. Each reviewer repeated the scoring at a 10-day interval. Interrater and intrarater agreement were calculated for each item and the total scores. RESULTS: Interrater and intrarater agreement were greater for the 3-point scale than the 2-point scale. Interrater agreement for overall instrument using the 3-point scale was in the "acceptable" range for Krippendorff's alpha on both the first trial (0.6922) and second trial (0.7238). Intrarater agreement was generally "excellent" for individual items as well as the overall instrument. CONCLUSION: The 3ET comprising these 4 physical findings has acceptable interrater and intrarater reliability, and may be applied to future clinical studies of ET function and disease.

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BACKGROUND: Endoscopic transsphenoidal surgical approaches to the skull base may produce alteration of intranasal architecture. Acoustic rhinometry (AR) can provide quantitative data on the nasal airway, which has not been previously applied to skull base surgery. We sought to employ AR to quantify the changes in nasal patency following endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery and identify the relationship between these changes and septal deviation, nasoseptal flap harvest, and sinonasal quality of life (QOL). METHODS: Consecutive patients undergoing endoscopic transsphenoidal resection of a sellar or suprasellar tumor were prospectively enrolled. All subjects were adults who completed AR and the 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) preoperatively and postoperatively. Cross-sectional area (CSA) was recorded at the internal nasal valve (CSA1), middle turbinate head (CSA2), and middle turbinate body (CSA3). Normative data were also collected from a larger cohort. RESULTS: Forty patients met study criteria. Significant increases occurred postoperatively in mean CSA2 (1.08 cm(2)) and CSA3 (2.47 cm(2)) (p < 0.001), whereas CSA1 remained unchanged. Nasoseptal flap harvest and correction of septal deviation did not significantly alter mean postoperative AR values. Mean SNOT-22 scores were comparable despite septal pathology, whereas strong correlation was not found with change in AR values. Preoperative and postoperative QOL scores were not significantly affected by the presence of nasal septal deviation. CONCLUSION: The endoscopic transsphenoidal approach to the skull base can result in increased intranasal area without a detrimental effect on sinonasal QOL. These effects are independent of nasoseptal flap harvest and correction of nasal septal deviation.

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OBJECT: Pituitary adenomas are well suited to resection by a minimal-access endoscopic technique. Validation of this approach requires prospective outcome studies to determine the impact on quality of life (QOL). This study aims to assess the effect of endoscopic pituitary adenoma resection on site-specific and sinonasal-related QOL before and after endoscopic surgery using validated instruments. METHODS: Consecutive adult patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal resection of pituitary adenoma were prospectively enrolled from a single tertiary care center. All patients completed the Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ) and the 22-Item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) preoperatively and then at regular intervals after surgery to assess their perceived QOL with regard to hormonal, surgical, and anatomical factors. RESULTS: Eighty-one of 114 patients were eligible for study; median follow-up was 16 months. This cohort included 24 (29.6%) nonsecreting macroadenomas and 57 (70.4%) hypersecreting tumors. There was significant improvement in the mean ASBQ score at 12 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year after surgery (p < 0.05), while postoperative SNOT-22 scores, at the same time points, showed no significant difference from preoperative scores. Both ASBQ and SNOT-22 scores showed transient worsening at 3 weeks postoperatively. Subtotal resection correlated with worse QOL, both overall and among patients with hypersecreting tumors (p < 0.05). Extrasellar tumor extension, intraoperative CSF leakage, and a reconstruction technique during surgery did not impact postoperative QOL. Visual disturbances did not significantly alter QOL. There were no postoperative CSF leaks in this series. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic resection of pituitary adenoma is associated with long-term improvements in site-specific QOL and stability in sinonasal QOL when assessed pre- and postoperatively with validated instruments. Subtotal resection was the only factor that negatively impacted postoperative QOL. Therefore, gross-total resection should be attempted for all patients to optimize QOL after surgery.

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OBJECTIVE: The current approach for the diagnosis and repair of spontaneous and traumatic anterior skull-base defects is oulined, highlighting the controversies that exist in the field and describing the strategies required to access different segments of the anterior cranial fossa. METHODS: We reviewed the literature concerning endoscopic management of anterior skull-base defects. These publications have been combined with our own experience repairing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks and encephaloceles that developed spontaneously, traumatically, or intentionally as a result of endoscopic skull-base surgery. RESULTS: We present a systematic methodology for the repair of these defects. We have divided our surgical approach into four separate corridors. These are the transnasal, transsphenoidal, transethmoidal, and transmaxillary corridors. Dissection strategies vary for each corridor, but with a combination of approaches, all areas of the anterior skull base can be accessed. Skull-base defects are successfully repaired with a multilayered closure that often involves use of a vascularized pedicled mucosal flap. Adoption of this technique has decreased our rate of postoperative CSF leak from 5.9%-3.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic endonasal repair of CSF leaks and encephaloceles has evolved significantly during the past decade. The versatility of different endoscopic approaches through the four endonasal corridors allows for the endoscopic repair of almost all skull-base defects. The use of vascularized pedicled mucosal flaps has evolved to cover these defects as part of multilayered closure strategies.

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BACKGROUND: Endoscopic skull-base surgery (ESBS) is a minimal access approach to cranial base pathology; however, it significantly disrupts the intranasal mucosa and intranasal structures, the long-term effects of which are still being studied. We prospectively assessed postoperative changes in sinonasal QOL symptoms following ESBS. METHODS: Eighty-five patients were prospectively assessed with the Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ), a validated QOL instrument, preoperatively and up to 1 year postoperatively at each subsequent office visit. A subset of these data was analyzed to assess the effect of endoscopic pituitary surgery on postoperative taste, smell, appetite, nasal secretions, and vision. RESULTS: ESBS patients were divided into 2 cohorts: those undergoing pituitary adenoma surgery and those undergoing ESBS for all other pathologies. Preoperative smell (3.11 vs 3.76, p = 0.03) and taste (3.04 vs 3.69, p = 0.03) were significantly lower in the nonpituitary group. Within the pituitary group both taste (3.69 vs 2.95, p = 0.03) and smell (3.76 vs 2.61, p ≤ 0.001) were significantly decreased by 6 weeks postoperatively. However, by 12 months both taste and smell scores returned to baseline. Vision scores improved by 3 weeks postoperatively with durable results at 1 year (2.80 vs 3.33, p = 0.04 vs 3.59, p = 0.03, respectively). Within the nonpituitary group, smell was decreased at 3 weeks, but was not significantly changed at any other time points. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates a dissociation between the nasal and visual QOL after ESBS. While nasal QOL transiently decreases, visual QOL progressively improves. These data should not be lumped together for the purposes of statistical analysis.

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BACKGROUND: Suprasellar meningiomas often invade the optic canals (OCs). The feasibility of removing these tumors through a minimal-access endonasal route has been demonstrated, but the importance, safety, and timing of OC exploration and decompression are not well described. OBJECTIVE: To create a simple decision-tree algorithm for OC exploration and decompression in the endonasal endoscopic surgery for planum sphenoidale and tuberculum sella meningiomas. METHODS: We identified a consecutive series of 8 planum sphenoidale and tuberculum sella meningiomas resected endonasally. "Late" OC exploration and decompression was performed in 4 of 8 patients. The extent of resection, visual outcome, and complications were recorded. RESULTS: Five patients had OC invasion on magnetic resonance imaging. Endoscopic inspection did not reveal additional OC invasion. The OC was opened bilaterally in 2 patients and unilaterally in 2 patients. Gross total resection was achieved in 6 of 7 patients in whom it was the goal. Vision improved in 3 patients (3 of 3 OCs opened) and was stable in 4 (1 of 4 OCs opened). In 1 patient, the bitemporal hemianopsia improved, but there was unilateral deterioration (no OC invasion) because the tumor was extremely adherent to 1 optic nerve. After an average follow-up of 20.9 months, all patients had an Glasgow Outcome Scale score of 5, and there were no cerebrospinal fluid leaks. CONCLUSION: Exploration and decompression of the OC are feasible, safe, and important to optimize visual outcome and to minimize recurrence in planum sphenoidale and tuberculum sella meningiomas resected endonasally. It may not be important to open the canal early during surgery because tumor debulking can be performed without manipulating the optic nerves. Early decompression, however, is technically feasible.

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Cholesterol granulomas (CGs) are benign, expanding cystic lesions surrounded by a thick fibrous capsule and filled with fluid, formed by the degradation of blood elements. The goal of surgery is to open the granuloma widely, creating a well-drained cavity. The endonasal endoscopic approach for this extradural lesion is a minimal access method for surgical removal or fenestration. The role of balloon dilation in creating a wide fenestration has not been previously described. The authors describe a patient with a recurrent petrous apex CG who underwent an endoscopic, endonasal, transmaxillary transpterygoid approach to the petrous apex. A balloon sinuplasty catheter was used to dilate the surgical fenestration to maintain continued patency. The authors report on their first experience using balloon dilation combined with endoscopic drainage of the petrous apex. The excellent surgical outcome of this minimally invasive technique holds promise for future endonasal approaches to the middle cranial fossa.

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BACKGROUND: Endoscopic skull base surgery (ESBS) is considered a minimally-invasive surgical modality with less morbidity and patient discomfort. Quality-of-life (QOL) assessments provide a patient-reported estimate of well-being that may be clinically relevant. Although the sinonasal tract is integral to ESBS, the change in sinonasal-related QOL with ESBS has not been well studied. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess QOL before and after ESBS using validated outcome measures. METHODS: Consecutive adult patients undergoing ESBS for anterior skull base lesions were prospectively enrolled from a tertiary referral center. Each patient was asked to complete the 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) and the Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ) preoperatively, and again at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year postoperatively. RESULTS: Eighty-five patients were included for study, 44.7% of whom underwent ESBS for nonpituitary pathology. Mean SNOT-22 scores transiently worsened in the early postoperative period, and significantly improved at 1 year after surgery (p < 0.01). Gross-total tumor resection and use of autologous grafting materials were associated with improved SNOT-22 scores at later time points (p < 0.05). Type of reconstruction, tumor pathology, and functionality did not affect QOL scores. Correlation between SNOT-22 and ASBQ scores was good at all time points (r < -0.50). Cerebrospinal fluid leak and other complications were uncommon. CONCLUSION: ESBS does not have a detrimental long-term effect and is associated with ultimate improvement in sinonasal-related QOL. Short-term impairments of sinonasal-related QOL are predictable and self-limited. Prospective assessment using sinonasal-related and site-specific QOL instruments provide complementary information about ESBS outcomes.

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Congenital hearing deficits can be caused by a variety of genetic and acquired conditions. Complete reversal of deficits in the peripheral auditory system may require delivery of corrective genes to cochlear progenitor cells. We tested delivery of lentivirus and an array of recombinant adeno-associated viral (AAV) serotypes for efficiency and cellular specificity of transgene expression after in utero delivery to the developing mouse otocyst. Stability of expression and safety with respect to auditory function were then tested in those vectors that had the most favorable in utero cochlear transduction characteristics (AAV2/1, AAV2/8, and lentivirus). AAV2/1 was found to be the optimal vector for in utero cochlear gene transfer. It efficiently transduced progenitors giving rise to both inner and outer hair cells and supporting cells and had no adverse effect on cochlear cell differentiation. Further, it had no pathological effect on differentiated hair cells or the integrity of the auditory nerve or brain-stem nuclei as measured by auditory brain-stem response testing. AAV2/1 promises to be useful in further studies evaluating differentiation pathways of cochlear cells in health and disease and for developing gene-based therapies for congenital and acquired forms of peripheral hearing loss.

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