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Biomedical subjects

V Balle

Publications and source records attributed to V Balle.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Autoinflation as a treatment of secretory otitis media. A randomized controlled study.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of a new method of autoinflation as an alternative treatment of secretory otitis media. Up to 80% of all children experience one or more episodes of eustachian tube dysfunction and secretory otitis media before school age. Common treatment of this condition is insertion of a ventilation tube in the tympanic membrane. Because of the very high incidence of secretory otitis media in childhood, insertion of ventilation tubes is the most frequently performed operation under general anesthesia in children. In addition to possible anesthetic complications, insertion of ventilation tubes may be associated with purulent suppuration, pathologic findings in the eardrum, and hearing impairment. One hundred children were consecutively randomized to undergo either autoinflation, using a new device, or placed in a control group. The children were between 3 and 10 years of age and were entered into the study after having had secretory otitis media for at least 3 months, as verified by tympanometric findings. Tympanometry was repeated at 2 weeks and at 1, 2, and 3 months after the children were entered into the study. After 2 weeks of autoinflation, the tympanometric conditions were improved in 64% of ears, unchanged in 34%, and deteriorated in the remaining 2%. In the control group, tympanometric findings were improved in 15% of ears, unchanged in 71%, and deteriorated in the remaining 14%.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗
PubMed1992

Multicentre evaluation of the temporal bones obtained from a patient with suspected Menière's disease.

A multicentre study of the inner ears of an 88-year-old patient with vertiginous spells and severe hearing loss in the left ear was performed, employing regular and block surface preparations, light and electron microscopy with qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the cochlear and vestibular nerves. There was severe hydrops of the left cochlea and saccule. Reissner's membrane extended into the vestibule and herniated into the perilymphatic space of the non-ampullated end of the horizontal canal. Furthermore, the short canal connecting the posterior ampulla with the utricle had a small, exceedingly thin balloon-like expansion. Only slight hydrops limited to the cochlea was found in the right ear. Sensorineural degeneration was much more pronounced in the left cochlea than in the right. The number of cochlear and vestibular nerve fibres was greatly reduced in the left ear where more fibres with degenerative changes were present. In both specimens the number of myelinated nerve fibres in osseous spiral lamina was smaller than that in the cochlear nerve in the internal auditory canal. Changes occurred in the endolymphatic sacs but were considered non-specific. In this case severe, apparently progressive hydrops and sensorineural degeneration, characteristic of Menière's disease, were associated with atypical onset of clinical symptoms at a late age.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Hearing disorders in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The cochlear and retrocochlear hearing function was evaluated in patients with long- and short-term insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) by means of psychoacoustic testing and auditory brain stem responses (ABR). Twenty patients with diabetic microangiopathy (median age 41 years, range 25-66 years) were examined. The median duration of their diabetes was 26 years (range 13-46 years). In addition, 19 patients without microangiopathy (median age 27 years, range 17-42 years) and with a median duration of the diabetes of 2 years (range 0-6 years) were examined. The metabolic control estimated by blood glucose concentration and glycosylated haemoglobin was identical in the two groups of IDDM patients. After correction for age and sex, no significant differences in hearing thresholds or discrimination scores were present between the two diabetic groups, or between the diabetic patients and an age- and sex-matched normal background population. In the patients with long-term IDDM, ABR produced abnormal responses in 40%, indicating the presence of diabetic encephalopathy, whereas ABR were abnormal in only 5% of the patients with short-term IDDM.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗
PubMed1989

Antibiotic treatment of children with secretory otitis media. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted to evaluate one month of amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium treatment of children with secretory otitis media. In total, 264 children, aged 1 to 10 years, were randomly assigned to either antibiotic or placebo treatment; 43 patients were excluded during treatment, equally distributed in both groups, leaving 221 patients completing the trial. The inclusion criterion was a type C2 and type B tympanometry result of at least three months' duration. Tympanometry was performed every month for 12 additional months. At the end of the treatment period, the disease was reversed in 61% in the antibiotic-treated group compared with 30% in the placebo-treated group (P less than .0001), and the improvement was persistently significant in favor of antibiotic for eight months. The effect was present in all age groups and independent of laterality of disease. The middle-ear status at the end of treatment was the determining factor for the outcome of tympanometry the year following treatment. From the end of treatment, there was no difference between tympanometry in a patient having been treated with the antibiotic and a patient having been treated with placebo. Antibiotic treatment shifts the individual patient from poor to better tympanometric conditions, so antibiotics can be recommended in the treatment of secretory otitis media before inserting ventilating tubes.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗
PubMed1986

Postinflammatory acquired atresia of the external auditory canal: late results of surgery.

Postinflammatory atresia of the external meatus following recurrent external otitis or chronic otitis media has been treated in twenty-two ears with endaural excision of the fibrous tissue and coverage of the denuded drum and bone of the medial part of the external ear canal with a split-skin transplant. Primary and late results are presented. During the first six months postoperatively, the patients developed recurrent atresia. At follow-up, with a median observation time of five years, no further progression of atresia had occurred. Hearing improvement has been considerable after removal of the atresia, and in many ears the air-bone gap was closed, so the patient also benefited from the operation in the long run.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for diabetic encephalopathy.

Auditory brain stem responses were recorded in 20 normoacoustic long-duration Type 1 diabetic patients (duration of diabetes 26 (range 13-46) years, age 44 (25-66) years) with peripheral neuropathy and retinopathy and in 19 sex-matched normoacoustic short-duration Type 1 diabetic patients (duration of diabetes 2 (0-6) years, age 23 (18-50) years) without clinical signs of neuropathy or microangiopathy. Abnormal brain stem auditory evoked responses were demonstrated in 40% of the long-duration and in 5.3% of the short-duration diabetic patients (p less than 0.01). Interpeak latencies Jv-JI and JIII-JI were significantly prolonged in both patient groups compared with the non-diabetic control group (p less than 0.01). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 16 of the long-duration patients and in 40 age-matched healthy volunteers on a whole body MR-scanner. Subcortical and/or brain stem lesions with abnormally high signals were seen in 69% of the long-duration Type 1 patients and in 12% of the healthy volunteers (p less than 0.02). Neuropsychological examination including 17 tests for intelligence and cognition were performed in the 20 long-duration Type 1 diabetic patients. The results indicated a performance close to that seen in a control group of healthy age-matched control subjects. Our study demonstrates that a considerable proportion of long-duration Type 1 diabetic patients suffering from retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy additionally have signs but no symptoms of central nervous system affection, diabetic encephalopathy.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Dacryocystorhinostomy.

The extranasal method of dacryocystorhinostomy, which totally incorporates the lacrimal sac into the nasal cavity, is described, and the primary and late results of this method are presented in 57 patients with chronic epiphora caused by stenosis of the nasolacrimal duct. Immediately after the operation, the results were satisfactory in all patients. At late follow-up, with a median observation period of 5 years, 80% of the patients were completely free of epiphora and 15% had periodic epiphora, which was a considerable improvement over the preoperative condition. The described method could become a rhinologic routine procedure in patients with chronic epiphora.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Disodium cromoglycate nasal spray in the treatment of perennial rhinitis.

In a double-blind crossover trial, 24 patients with perennial rhinitis have been treated with 2% disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) nasal spray. 15 patients preferred DSCG to placebo, 9 patients showed no preference. Analysis of the diary cards showed a significant preference of DSCG in the group which received placebo first for the symptoms blocking, secretion and sneezing (p less than 0.1), while no preference between the treatment periods occured in the group receiving DSCG first. A significantly higher IgG concentration in serum was found in 15 patients with preference for DSCG than with remainder (p less than 0.05). No other changes in immunoglobulin concentration in nasal secretion or serum were found, which could be related to the effect of DSCG. DSCG nasal spray is considered a valuable supplement in the treatment of perennial rhinitis.

Aerosols↗