We describe a patient with oedema of the legs and ascites due to right atrial (RA) inflow obstruction, caused by atrial septal aneurysm (ASA) and an elongated Eustachian valve (EV). Both structural abnormalities created a narrow inflow channel to the free RA cavity. RA inflow obstruction is usually related to constrictive pericardial disease and pericardial tamponade. Other cardiac causes of RA...

Background: With respect to physical relations in force and pressure, we hypothesized that the prevalence of traumatic tympanic membrane perforation in patients with a patulous Eustachian tube is greater than normal, because in Eustachian tube patency, the internal air pressure of the middle ear will not increase after compression, subsequent to trauma. Therefore the force upon the tympanic...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of OSMF on the eustachian tube function and to correlate it with various grades of the disease. STUDY DESIGN Twenty OSMF patients (40 ears) and 20 healthy controls (40 ears) were evaluated for eustachian tube function by eustachian tube function test, tympanometry and audiometry. RESULTS The audiometric and tympanometric analysis showed no significant diffe...

BACKGROUND Eustachian tube dysfunction is regarded as a 'black box' term, reflecting a spectrum of dysfunction. The key to its diagnosis and management is in identifying the aetiology and exact pathophysiology of the dysfunction. DESIGN We present our retrospective 5-year results for the technique of transnasal endoscopic balloon dilatation of the cartilaginous part of the Eustachian tube, ba...

The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of endoscopic transtympanic balloon dilation of the cartilaginous eustachian tube. To accomplish this, transtympanic balloon dilation of the cartilaginous eustachian tube was performed on 11 eustachian tubes (6 cadaver heads). The balloon catheter was introduced and passed through the protympanic orifice of the eustachian tube transtympanic...

Background. The coronary venous system is an increasingly frequent target of minimally invasive cardiac procedures. The purpose of this paper is to assess the anatomical barriers in the right atrium to coronary sinus cannulation. Methods. We examined the anatomy of the right atrium, coronary sinus ostium, inferior and superior vena cava ostia in 110 randomly selected autopsied human hearts of b...