A comprehensive 5-year follow-up study of Paparella grommet use in UK. Study group consists of children previously treated with short-term grommets and with persistent glue ear. Mean functional period was 3.73 years with 52% being retainde for the full 5 year duration of the study. Infection and perforation rates increased with the duration of grommet in-situ and this was especially marked after 36 months. We advise the elective removal of these long-term grommets after 3 years of function to reduce compication rate.

We investigated the preoperative visual field dependence-independence of 21 VS-patients with the Rod and Frame test and correlated these findings to tumor size, age, gender, and vestibular tests.Results: Seventeen patients had a normal subjective visual horizontal and vertical (SVH-V). These patients showed a significantly increased tilt of the SVH-V when the frame in the Rod and Frame test was tilted toward the lesioned ear (mean, 8.2 degrees), compared to when it was tilted toward the healthy ear (mean, 5.5 degrees) (P Ͻ 0.010). There was no correlation to caloric responses, spontaneous or head shaking nystagmus, or to tumor size and gender.Conclusions: The results indicate that, in spite of a normal subjective visual horizontal and vertical, the extra challenge of the Rod and Frame test can indicate the side of lesion for patients with vestibular schwannoma. This has not been reported earlier and suggests an asymmetric adaptation to the visual surround and a novel mechanism for visio-vestibular conflict and dizziness in patients with vestibular disorders.

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