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Background: Little data about the efficacy and limitations of ultrasound-guided mechanical intraductal stone fragmentation and removal of sialoliths (Sonoguide Forceps) exist., Methods: This was a chart review of patients treated within the last 4 years at 2 tertiary care centers., Results: Sonoguide Forceps were used as a second-line treatment in 22 patients with sialolithiasis. Ten patients were free of stones and symptoms afterwards (7 of 17 submandibular, 2 of 4 parotid, 1 of 1 sublingual). Six patients were primarily treated for parotid sialolithiasis, 4 with successful stone retrieval. The reasons for failure were a lack of accessibility to the stone by the forceps (n = 9), the impossibility of grasping the stone (n = 5), and/or the concomitant grabbing of soft tissue together with the stone (n = 3)., Conclusion: The efficacy of Sonoguide Forceps as both a secondary and primary treatment modality makes it an interesting, simple, and inexpensive therapeutic alternative. Relevant parameters for treatment success include the size and position of the stones.

Background: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia is characterized by angiodysplastic lesions. So far, knowledge is limited on the vascular architecture and rate of occult manifestation of telangiectases. Contact endoscopy has not been used for this task before., Methods: Eleven patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia were examined with contact endoscopy to identify occult telangiectases. Sixty enoral telangiectases were studied in detail to characterize their architecture., Results: No occult telangiectases could be detected. In most cases, telangiectases consisting of a simple dilated loop were small. In contrast, most of the complex telangiectases were larger., Conclusions: Visually normal areas in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia did not seem to have abnormal vascularization. Simple dilated capillary loops might be precursors of telangiectases with a more complex structure. Contact endoscopy seems to be a promising tool for the in vivo monitoring of therapies and the natural course of vascular disorders in humans and in animal models., ((c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 27: XXX-XXX, 2005.)