During the 17-year period from 1977 to 1994 a total of 23 patients in Copenhagen County were admitted to hospital with facial palsy, developed during acute otitis media. This corresponds to an annual incidence of 2.3 per million inhabitants. In the pre-antibiotic era it was estimated that 0.5% of patients with acute otitis media developed facial palsy. Our figures indicate a decrease of this complication by a factor of 100, to 0.005%. Although fourteen of the patients were children, the risk of an acute otitis media being complicated by facial palsy seems to be highest in adults (who have a low incidence of acute otitis media). All the children were < or = 3 years of age and 2/3 of the adults > or = 50 years of age. Complete remission was seen in all patients, except one. The time interval to complete remission was correlated significantly with the degree of the facial palsy on admission, as it was longest in the most severe facial palsies.

The human sense of smell is closely associated with morphological differences of the fronto-limbic system, specifically the piriform cortex and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). Still it is unclear whether cortical volume in the core olfactory areas and connected brain regions are shaped differently in individuals who suffer from lifelong olfactory deprivation relative to healthy normosmic individuals. To address this question, we examined if regional variations in gray matter volume were associated with smell ability in seventeen individuals with isolated congenital olfactory impairment (COI) matched with sixteen normosmic controls. All subjects underwent whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging, and voxel-based morphometry was used to estimate regional variations in grey matter volume. The analyses showed that relative to controls, COI subjects had significantly larger grey matter volumes in left middle frontal gyrus and right superior frontal sulcus (SFS). COI subjects with severe olfactory impairment (anosmia) had reduced grey matter volume in the left mOFC and increased volume in right piriform cortex and SFS. Within the COI group olfactory ability, measured with the "Sniffin' Sticks" test, was positively associated with larger grey matter volume in right posterior cingulate and parahippocampal cortices whereas the opposite relationship was observed in controls. Across COI subjects and controls, better olfactory detection threshold was associated with smaller volume in right piriform cortex, while olfactory identification was negatively associated with right SFS volume. Our findings suggest that lifelong olfactory deprivation trigger changes in the cortical volume of prefrontal and limbic brain regions previously linked to olfactory memory.

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Mucormycosis infection of the paranasal sinuses is a very rare but serious condition. Patients are usually immunocompromised by systemic disease. We report an unexpected case of expansive paranasal sinus mucormycosis in an immunocompetent European treated successfully with surgical debridement and intravenous amphotericin B. The pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of paranasal sinus mucormycosis is discussed.

Background: The Faroese people constitute a geographically isolated population, and research on cancer in this population is sparse. Thus, this study aimed to calculate the age-standardised incidence rate (ASIR) and 5-year survival rates in head and neck cancers (HNC) in the Faroese population from 1985 to 2017. Materials and methods: All patients registered with HNC in the Faroese Cancer Registry (FCR) from 1985 to 2017 were included. The ASIR per 100,000 (World Standard Population) and 5-year survival rates were calculated. We also calculated the distribution of tobacco, alcohol consumption, cancer stages and various timelines. Results: 202 patients were included in the study (62% men). The ASIR for all HNC was 10.0/ 100,000 persons-years and was higher among men than women. Women's survival rate was significantly higher than men's (p = 0.026). The results imply that oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) had the best survival rate and was diagnosed at a significantly earlier stage. Conclusion: This retrospective nationwide study showed that ASIRs and 5-year survival rates for Faroese HNC patients in general resembled the ones reported for Danish HNC patients. Timelines for Faroese HNC patients were shorter compared with Greenlandic HNC patients, but longer compared with the Danish fast track programme limits.