Search

Background: Radiotherapy is the standard and most effective treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in its early stages. However, its application in fighter pilots returning to flying duties with NPC has not been previously reported, presumably due to post-radiotherapeutic complications. Case report: A 36-yr-old male fighter pilot had a painless mass in the left neck for 5 mo. Pathological diagnosis demonstrated nonkeratinizing squamous cell carcinoma in the left nasopharynx which had metastasized to lymph nodes in the left side of the neck. He was diagnosed and staged with NPC (T1N2M0) before treatment with radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy. The patient suffered from catarrhal otitis media and xerostomia after 3 mo of radiotherapy, but these symptoms resolved. After a total of 8 mo of radiotherapy, he was in remission with no evidence of tumor recurrence or metastasis. He had normal Eustachian tube, hearing, and vestibular function before and after hypobaric chamber testing and passed all flight-related physical examinations. Consequently, he was granted a medical waiver and returned to flying status in two-seat fighter aircraft, flying for 53 h in a 12-mo period. After passing all flight-related tests again, he was then allowed to fly in single-seat aircraft. At the time of submission of this article, he has flown for 147 h and remained on flying status for 26 mo. He w ill be monitored annually for long-term effects of radiotherapy and/or disease recurrence. Conclusions: Fighter pilots with NPC may be safely considered for medical waiver with appropriate monitoring after successful treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulmonary sequestration is a rare congenital malfor-mation. The diagnosis of pulmonary sequestration is based on the iden-tification of an abnormal arterial supply. Conventional treatment for pulmonary sequestration is surgical removal of the tissue, which may induce serious trauma and requires a long recovery time. Recently, en-dovascular treatment has become feasible as a safer and less invasive method to treat pulmonary sequestration. Case report: To the best of our knowledge, pulmonary sequestration has not been reported in pilots. In this study, we report a fighter pilot case of intralobar pulmonary se-questration detected with the assistance of spiral computed tomography (CT) and digital subtraction angiography. The young fighter pilot had experienced recurrent hemoptysis and pulmonary infections for approx-imately 10 yr before the pulmonary sequestration was diagnosed. We performed a transcatheter arterial embolization and a subsequent CT angiography confirmed complete infarction of the sequestration. After the treatment, no clinical complications were observed and the patient, with normal lung function restored, was qualified to serve as a fighter pilot again. Discussion: Compared with conventional removal surgery, endovascular treatment is a superior treatment for pulmonary sequestra-tion in a fighter pilot in maintenance of pilot qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]