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I read the article by Thornton 1 on middle turbinate stabilization technique in endoscopic sinus surgery in the August 1996 issue of theArchives. In 1991, at the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery annual meeting in Kansas City, Kan, I presented this technique as a poster presentation. In the same year I also presented this technique at the International Congress of Rhinology in Tokyo, Japan. I am happy to find that Thornton has an equally favorable result from this technique. The difference in our techniques is that he uses a straight needle, whereas I use a curved needle. I find the curved needle easier to insert compared with the straight needle. In addition, I also use black nylon suture as opposed to an absorbable suture material. I found that the monofilament nylon has less tendency to accumulate crust.

Epidermoid carcinomas of the glossotonsillarpalatal complex receive preoperative irradiation with cobalt 60. These lesions are outlined with 1 to 1½ cm margins using India ink prior to irradiation. The tattoo marks stay and make determination of resection margins easier.

We are very grateful to Dr. Chandler for his comments on our article "Emergency Laryngectomy." We do not wish to deny credit to Drs. Hoover and King for their fine article "Emergency Laryngectomy." No attempt whatsoever on our part was made to claim originality for the concept of emergency laryngectomy. At our institution, we adopted and modified the concept to accommodate three different types of patients. (1) Patients with impending laryngeal obstruction; (2) patients with airway obstruction as a result of special laryngeal radiographics, studies, and endoscopies; and (3) patients in totally obstructed states. In addition, we have adopted a plan of approach for those patients with laryngeal carcinoma who undergo emergency tracheostomy, but for some reason or another could not undergo the emergency laryngectomy. We also try to delineate subglottic extension in all these cases so that we do not cut through tumor at the time the tracheostomy is