Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA
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A right-sided aortic arch with an aneurysm of the aberrant subclavian artery is a rare disease. We report a case of Kommerell's diverticulum of an aberrant left subclavian artery in a patient with a right-sided aortic arch. Fewer than 50 cases have been reported in the literature. ⋯ Postoperative complications included left vocal cord palsy and Horner's syndrome. Hoarseness and left ptosis recovered spontaneously 3 months after surgery, and the patient remained symptom-free at the 1-year follow-up. We believe a left thoracotomy for direct repair of Kommerell's diverticulum is a simple and safe method without the increased morbidity found in other procedures.
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Oral cancer is a fatal disease, accounting for the fourth highest incidence of malignancy in males and the seventh in females in Taiwan. The relatively high prevalence of oral cancer in Taiwan is mainly because there is a high-risk group of 2.5 million people with the habit of smoking and betel nut chewing. Unfortunately, 50% of new cases in our medical center who present with TNM stage III or IV lesions have a shorter than 5-year survival after treatment. ⋯ It is generally accepted that prevention and screening of oral cancer are equally important to treatment due to its location. In this review article, we describe the nature of oral cancer and highlight the various conventional and novel methods of screening for this disease and ongoing important related research. Related literature is reviewed and future work that needs to be done is detailed.