0000000000175268
AUTHOR
E. A. Ziegler
Reliability of cochlear implants.
Background The long-term reliability of cochlear implants over time is an important issue for patients and cochlear implant teams. The calculation of cumulative survival rates including all hard failures of cochlear implants is suitable to report objectively about cochlear implant reliability. Methods This is a report of 192 cochlear implants from different manufacturers in adults (n = 58) and children (n = 134). Results The overall cumulative implant survival rate was 91.7% for a period of 11 years. The main reasons for hard failures were design errors of the products and direct or indirect trauma to the cochlea implant site (especially in children) with consecutive breaks of the implant b…
Secondary hyperalgesia to punctate mechanical stimuli
Tissue injury induces enhanced pain sensation to light touch and punctate stimuli in adjacent, uninjured skin (secondary hyperalgesia). Whereas hyperalgesia to light touch (allodynia) is mediated by A-fibre low-threshold mechanoreceptors, hyperalgesia to punctate stimuli may be mediated by A- or C-fibre nociceptors. To disclose the relative contributions of A- and C-fibres to the hyperalgesia to punctate stimuli, the superficial radial nerve was blocked by pressure at the wrist in nine healthy subjects. Secondary hyperalgesia was induced by intradermal injection of 40 microg capsaicin, and pain sensitivity in adjacent skin was tested with 200 micron diameter probes (35-407 mN). The progress…
Beidseitige progrediente Hörminderung als Erstmanifestation eines metastasierenden Pankreaskopfkarzinoms - Kasuistik -
We report the history of a patient who presented first with a progressive unilateral hearing loss and later with a bilateral deafness and an unilateral facial nerve palsy as first and only symptoms of a pancreatic adenocarcinoma. By means of magnetic resonance tomography tumor-suspect lesions in both internal auditory canals were detected. Referring to the results of further examinations these intracanalicular lesions are most probably due to rarely seen bilateral metastasis of a pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the temporal bone. In addition to this rarely diagnosed localisation of metastasis it is rather uncommon that this kind of primary malignoma had not been detected because of gastrointes…