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The outcome of radiation therapy or surgery was studied retrospectively in 30 previously untreated patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lateral wall of the oropharynx. Twenty-two patients with tonsillar SCC and 8 patients with tonsillar pillar SCC were treated between 1978 and 1997 at the Jichi Medical School Hospital. The group consisted of 25 men and 5 women, aged 34 to 82 years (average, 63 years). In the tonsillar SCC group, lesions were T1 in 2 cases, T2 in 2, T3 in 13, and T4 in 5; 5, 3, 12 and 2 patients had NO, N1, N2, and N3 disease, respectively. In the tonsillar pillar SCC group, lesions were T2 in 5 cases, T3 in 2, and T4 in 1; 6 patients had NO, 1 had N1, and 1 had N2 disease. Fourteen patients were treated with radiation and 16 were treated with surgery, 14 of whom also received preoperative irradiation. Eleven patients in the surgery group underwent resection by a transoral approach and 5 underwent extended surgery with reconstruction. Disease-free survival rate at 3 years by the Kaplan-Meier method was 64% in the radiation group and 78% in the surgery group (not significantly different) in those with tonsillar SCC, and 67% and 82%, respectively, (not significantly different) in those with tonsillar pillar SCC. The surgical approach was transoral in patients with noninvasive T2 or T3 primary lesions. No local recurrence was observed. Transoral resection appears to be useful for treating noninvasive lateral wall SCC of the oropharynx.

Five of the nine patients in this series had incudostapedial joint separation, two had stapes fixation, one had incudostapedial joint separation and incus fixation, and one had a dislocated stapes foot plate that had no contact with the oval window.Autografts were used to reconstruct the discontinuity in six cases, and good results were obtained. Stapes surgery was done in three cases, and was successful in two cases.The etiology of the anomalies observed in these patients is discussed from the standpoint of temporal bone embryology.The results of pre-operative auditory function tests were evaluated. However, it was difficult to predict pre-operatively by auditory examination which type of ossicular anomalies the patients had.