The Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Department of Otorhinolaryngology

ORL Progress Notes

April 2010 Articles

Welcome!

Just a few months ago, Ron Karni, MD, and Tang Ho, MD, participated in a free clinic where they met a man with an untreated lower lip cancer. Within a short time, Dr. Karni resected the tumor, and Dr. Ho performed lower lip reconstruction. Dr. Oz featured the story on his daytime program. The patient has completed his postoperative radiation and chemotherapy, and he recently returned to the Dr. Oz Show. This remarkable story illustrates the best part of the country’s healthcare system—compassionate, sophisticated healthcare delivered to patients who need it.

As always, we welcome your feedback and comments. Please feel free to contact us at any time—and to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues.

Martin J. Citardi, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor and Chair, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Chief of Otorhinolaryngology, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center


A Cancer Patient Regains His Voice

Following surgical resection and stereotactic radiation therapy to treat a metastatic adenocarcinoma in his left cerebral hemisphere, Dick Smith’s voice was inexplicably reduced to a whisper. “Between his brain surgery in July and the Gamma Knife treatment in mid-August, Dick had lost so much of his voice that we gave him the nickname Whispering Smith,” says his wife, Jackie Smith. “When we decided to track the origin of his problem, Neurosurgery referred us to a laryngologist, who discovered that Dick’s right vocal cord was paralyzed.”

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Producing Quality Outcomes in Thyroid Surgery

Up to 50 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with a thyroid nodule at some time in their lives, found either by palpation or incidentally on a radiographic imaging study. About 4 to 7 percent of these nodules will be malignant, and the remainder will be benign. For all thyroid diagnoses, the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center offers comprehensive care and surgical expertise in a single location.

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Functional Rhinoplasty: Repairing Nasal Valve Obstruction

The first line of treatment for most patients with nasal obstruction symptoms is medical therapy, but when the etiology is secondary to an anatomical abnormality such as septal deviation or nasal valve collapse, functional nasal reconstruction can improve patients’ quality of life dramatically.

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