A Second Pair of Ears
Jack Perrell* had no idea what he was missing until he was fitted with hearing aids. The 46-year-old information technology professional and his wife have been fostering cats for 15 years, and it wasn’t until last October, when he was…
TORS-L: Transoral Robotic Surgery with CO2 Laser Offers Greater Precision for Surgeons and De-intensification of Adjuvant Therapies for Patients
Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) has recently emerged as an alternative to comprehensive chemoradiation in the treatment of mucosal aerodigestive tract malignancies. In a presentation made last fall to the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, otolaryngologist Ron J. Karni,…
UTHealth Audiology Offers Widex Zen Therapy for Tinnitus Management
Tinnitus can’t be cured, but patients with the condition can reduce its impact on their lives through device-driven habituation therapy. A new rehabilitation program at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and UTHealth Audiology provides comprehensive evaluation of the disorder and an…
Simultaneous Bilateral Cochlear Implants in an Infant After Meningitis
In April 2010, eight-month-old Antonio Campos contracted bacterial meningitis that led to a two-week stay at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. After a pre-discharge vision and hearing test, his mother Giovana Blas was told that the…
Laryngotracheal Reconstruction Using Anterior Cricoid Suspension in a Three Year Old
When Cameron Chan was delivered at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital on June 16, 2009, he was – at 24 weeks gestation – the youngest baby born to date at the hospital. “He was struggling,” recalls his mother Mandy Chan….
Single-Incision Minimally Invasive Parathyroidectomy
Board-certified otorhinolaryngologist Ron Karni, MD, was the third ENT whom Rosemary Sauceda saw after routine blood work performed by her oncologist revealed hypercalcemia. A former renal cell carcinoma patient, Sauceda was concerned that her cancer had metastasized. When her oncologist…
Multidisciplinary Virtual Pre-surgical Planning Optimizes the Outcome for an Ameloblastoma Patient
By the time 27-year-old Reginald Durden saw oral and maxillofacial surgeon Nagi Demian, DDS, MD, the ameloblastoma had destroyed his lower jaw. Three surgeries later, Durden has a normal appearance, with scars that are barely visible, and he can talk…
Transoral Robotic Surgery for the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
When the da Vinci® Surgical System was approved by the FDA in 2009 for transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for resection of tumors of the pharynx, otorhinolaryngologists affiliated with the University of Texas Medical School at Houston (UTHealth) and Memorial Hermann-Texas…
Using Intraoperative Staining to Identify the Parathyroid Adenoma
Rosa Castillo was unaware that she had major health problems until her primary care physician, discovered high levels of calcium in routine blood work. When the hypercalcemia persisted, she referred her to an endocrinologist. About 99 percent of all cases…
A Collaborative Approach Offers Patients a Less Invasive Alternative for Surgical Excision of Pituitary Tumors
Surgery is the primary treatment for pituitary tumors and until the last decade, neurosurgeons favored the traditional microscopic sublabial transseptal approach – an incision under the lip, use of a retractor to push away nasal tissue and placement of a…