Introduction: The aim of our retrospective study was to review the clinical and epidemiological presentation of head and neck tuberculosis. Material and methods: We analyzed the history of 73 patients with head and neck tuberculosis hospitalized in the Department of Otolaryngology, Medical...

Background: Early diagnosis of laryngeal lesions is necessary to begin treatment of patients as soon as possible to preserve optimal organ functions. Imaging examinations are often aided by artificial intelligence (AI) to improve quality and facilitate appropriate diagnosis. The aim of this study is to investigate diagnostic utility of AI in laryngeal endoscopy. Methods: Five databases were searched for studies implementing artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced models assessing images of laryngeal lesions taken during laryngeal endoscopy. Outcomes were analyzed in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Results: All 11 studies included presented an overall low risk of bias. The overall accuracy of AI models was very high (from 0.806 to 0.997). The accuracy was significantly higher in studies using a larger database. The pooled sensitivity and specificity for identification of healthy laryngeal tissue were 0.91 and 0.97, respectively. The same values for differentiation between benign and malignant lesions were 0.91 and 0.94, respectively. The comparison of the effectiveness of AI models assessing narrow band imaging and white light endoscopy images revealed no statistically significant differences (p = 0.409 and 0.914). Conclusion: In assessing images of laryngeal lesions, AI demonstrates extraordinarily high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.

The aim of the study is to define the utility of ultrasound (US) in differentiating benign from malignant parotid tumors as well as pleomorphic adenomas (PA) from monomorphic adenoma (MA). Seventy-two consecutive parotid gland tumors were analysed with high-resolution ultrasonography (12 MHz) with color Doppler imagining. The histopathological diagnosis was confirmed after parotidectomy for each lesion. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for the US were established. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed to determine the predictive values of echogenicity, heterogeneity, and vascularity on color Doppler. Area under the curve (AUC) was calculated for each parameter considered. The analysed material included 27 MA, 26 PA, 1 basal cell adenoma, 8 inflammatory conditions, and 10 malignant neoplasms. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of US in differentiation of malignant from benign lesions in the parotid gland were 60, 95.2, and 90.3%, respectively. The predictive values were: PPV 66.8% and NPV 93.6%. Differentiating diagnoses between PA and MA with US resulted in a sensitivity of 61.5%, specificity of 81.5%, and accuracy of 73.1%. The predictive values were: PPV 50% and NPV 68.8%, respectively. For distinguishing malignant from benign tumors, the highest AUC values noted were for heterogeneity and vascularization (0.8 and 0.743, respectively). The AUC values were the highest for hypoechogenicity and vascularization in separating PA from MA (0.718 and 0.685, respectively).

Deep neck infections (DNIs) are still emergency conditions in otorhinolaryngology. Due to rapid disease progression and life-threatening complications, the accurate surgical and medical treatment must be promptly applied. In the present study, we analyzed treatment protocols of 46 adults to assess efficacy of the treatment and search for prognostic factors of the outcomes. We performed retrospective analysis of medical data of 46 patients, who underwent surgical treatment in our department due to purulent DNI in the period from 2009 to 2017. Data investigated included age, sex, hospitalization time, duration of symptoms before drainage, comorbidities, selected laboratory tests results, location and the number of abscesses, results of microbiological cultures, and antibiotic treatment options. The study group consisted of 33 (71.7%) men and 13 (28.3%) women. Patients age ranged from 18 to 82 years. The mean duration of hospital stay was 13.2 ± 8.4 days. The most common site involved was submandibular space (43.5%), followed by parapharyngeal space (28.3%). The majority of patients had single abscess (81.2%), the multiple abscesses were revealed in 8 (18.8%) cases. The mean size of the abscesses was 42 mm. C-reactive protein level was increased in 96.7% patients (mean level 155.5 ± 146.7 mg/L), but the white blood cell count exceeded the normal in 60.9% cases (mean level 16.89 ± 5.59 × 10⁹/L). Staphylococcus aureus (20.7%) and Peptostreptococcus (20.7%) were the most common species cultured from swabs. The antibiotic treatment included most commonly a combined ceftriaxone and metronidazole (n = 23). Two patients died due to complications. The correlation between different variables and the duration of hospitalization revealed only the hemoglobin level below 12.5 g/dL, a significant predictor of longer hospitalization (16.23 days vs 12.09 days, P = .017). Patients with purulent DNIs and decreased hemoglobin level are predisposed to prolonged recovery following the surgical drainage.

Background: The aim of this study was a comprehensive analysis of the incidence of different salivary gland pathologies in the adult population of Poland. Methods: A retrospective analysis of salivary gland pathologies diagnosed in Poland in 2010–2019 based on the National Health Fund (NHF) database was performed. Non-neoplastic diseases, and benign and malignant lesions were identified using ICD-10 codes. Demographic characteristics, incidence rates, and the number of inpatient and outpatient medical services were analyzed. Results: Salivary gland pathologies were diagnosed in 230,589 patients over 10 years (85.5% were non-neoplastic lesions, 11.53% benign and 2.93% malignant neoplasms). Incidence rate for all pathologies was 59.94/100,000. The mean incidence for malignant neoplasms was 1.78, and decreasing trend was observed over the analyzed period. Contrarily, for benign neoplasms (mean incidence—6.91), an increase in numbers was noted annually. The incidence for non-malignant lesions was quite stable (mean: 51.25) over the time. The highest number of medical services per patient concerned malignant neoplasms (on average, two hospital stays, and eleven outpatient consultations). Conclusions: An increase of benign salivary gland tumors, and a decrease of malignant neoplasms was observed during the studied period. The number of medical services related to salivary gland pathologies increased during the period under study.