Otolaryngology Newsroom
URMC Newsroom Q&A:
Research Supplement
Leslie Gonzales in the Henry lab has been awarded a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research from the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders. This award will help support Leslie's PhD research in the Neuroscience Graduate Program on how damage to hair-cell synapses within the cochlea impacts neurophysiological responses to sound. The long term goal of Leslie's research is to provide information needed to improve diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss.
Residents update
The ENT department has been quite busy as of late, with many exciting opportunities/experiences happening seemingly every month. A few of our residents had the chance to present at grand rounds this past fall and are looking forward to the opportunity to do so again in the future. Our PGY3 class enjoyed time in Miami at the annual Summer Sinus Symposium this past July, while our PGY2 class sharpened their plating skills at the AO Facial Trauma Course in Boston- in August. Our PGY5 class was able to attend the AAOHNSF meeting in Philadelphia this past September, and we had much success at our annual intern recruitment days this past December & January. With match day quickly approaching, we are looking forward to welcoming our newly matched residents into the ENT family very soon.
Inspire Sleep
Dr. Sveta Karelsky completed her 200th Inspire implant on December 15th, 2022. Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation is the only FDA-approved implantable treatment for people with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. While you sleep, Inspire delivers mild stimulation to key airway muscles, allowing the airway to remain open via a small handheld sleep remote. Highland Hospital is the first hospital in our area to offer Inspire implants, with UR Medicine continuing to develop & advance these technologies with a highly successful team consisting of Dr. Sveta Karelsky, P. A Tarek Siala, and Dr. Carolina Marcus (UR Sleep Medicine).
Dr. Karelsky is only the 15th surgeon in the country to complete 200 implants. She is the highest volume surgeon in NY and the second highest in the Northeast region. Dr. Karelsky also has a new remote monitoring platform, called SleepSync which allows providers to get real-time patient data via a bluetooth sleep remote. This enables providers to track patient adherence and do virtual check-ins through the Inspire Sleep App. Patients can track symptoms and request needed adjustments remotely, as well as communicate with their provider without the need of a traditional office visit. This web-based platform requires no software- allowing providers to access real-time information anytime, anywhere. Dr. Karelsky and URMC Sleep are the first in New York State to offer this new capability, and we applaud their dedication and efforts.
What is Aphasia?
Bruce Willis’ family announced in March 2022 that the film star, known for his roles in classics like “Pulp Fiction” and “Die Hard,” would be stepping away from acting after he was diagnosed with aphasia.
Most people in the U.S. haven’t heard the term “aphasia,” according to the National Aphasia Association. But you likely know someone who has this common communication disorder. Or, you might know that there is a connection between brain damage, strokes and difficulty communicating. Senior speech-language pathologist Heather Coles, M.A., CCC-SLP has treated a wide range of communication disorders in her 25 years at the University of Rochester Medical Center and specializes in aphasia. She addresses common questions and misconceptions about this condition for a Q&A on the URMC Newsroom.
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids Are On the Way: In Good Health
Availability of over-the-counter hearing aids may become reality sometime this year.
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed guidelines on allowing a new class of hearing aids to be sold without a prescription for people 18 and older with mild to moderate hearing loss.
UR Medicine audiologist Katherine Joyce shares her expertise in this story.
Far from home for the holidays, oral cancer survivor finds family in Wilmot Cancer team
Not too long before the holiday season last year, Steve Friedman, 63, found out the pain he was feeling from a poorly fitting denture was more than just that.
A visit with oral and maxillofacial surgeon Joseph Fantuzzo, D.D.S., M.D., led him to the Wilmot Cancer Institute, where he would soon spend the holidays being treated for oral cancer at the Head & Neck Comprehensive Care Center.
Steve Friedman, of Pavilion, N.Y., visits Wilmot Cancer Institute for a follow-up appointment at the Head & Neck Comprehensive Care Center on Nov. 16, 2021. After losing his voice box to a battle with oral cancer, he uses a stylus and mobile notepad app on his Windows phone to communicate.
“At that point I was far enough along that there was little that my dentist could do for me,” Steve recalls.
Head and neck surgeons Weitao Wang, M.D., and Joel Fontanarosa, M.D., Ph.D., saw Steve a few days before Thanksgiving last year, and found that he had a bleeding mass on his tongue and lumps in his neck. A biopsy showed stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma. Read the full URMC Newsroom Patient Care Feature to learn about Steve's treatment and recovery with our multidisciplinary head & neck team.
Dr. Pamela Kruger's Interview with Channel 8
Marlene's audiologist, Dr. Pamela Kruger says her first level of hearing usually takes weeks of therapy.
"I would say she was in maybe the top 25 to 30 percent of getting to that level," Kruger says.
Sutliff says her first day with the activated implant was a rollercoaster. "I took turns between crying and singing to myself. I hadn't been able to sing and hear at all, and singing was so important in my life growing up," Sutliff says.
Dr. Kruger also says Sutliff did the necessary research prior to her implant as well.
"She prepared well. She was very, very thoughtful about this. She did not make this decision lightly and I think that is evident in her outcomes."
Dr. Isaac Schmale's Interview with Channel 13
"People are not only depressed when they're symptomatic but they kind of feel hopeless," says Dr. Isaac Schmale, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at URMC. He has additional training in rhinology, a sub-specialty focused on the nasal cavity and sinuses.
Loss of smell, known as anosmia, can be caused by many things, including polyps, injuries or viruses. When the cause is viral, as with Covid-19, the science of what happens and how to fix it, is still in its early stages.
"What we think happens is that the area in the nose where smell happens, or high up in the nose, is damaged," explains Dr. Schmale. "The lining there, the pathway from your nose to your brain, there's damage. They don't know everything about it yet but that's the theory."
It is thought that most people will regain some or all of their sense of smell within a few weeks or a month after the infection. But between 5% and 10% will suffer long-term loss, and that's where Dr. Schmale says a kind of physical therapy for the nose might help.
"The goal is to either help the body regenerate, we don't know how much that's happening, or just get the most out of the system that's left. Find new ways for your brain to adapt to what signals are left."
Dr. Schmale says early findings indicate smell retraining is helping about half of the people with profound, long-term, loss of smell caused by a viral infection.
Dr. Sveta Karelsky's Interview with News 8
“Obstructive sleep apnea is a very common condition in which our breathing during sleep is interrupted due to obstruction or collapse of the throat, which we also call the airway,” explained Dr. Karelsky. “This can lead to a number of very negative consequences and risks to your health – ranging from being sleepy and fatigued to exacerbating things like high blood pressure, diabetes, and even the increased risk of stroke. The most common treatment typically offered is a continuous positive airway pressure device or a CPAP mask, which a lot of people are familiar with, but this can be quite a challenging treatment to tolerate. And what we found is that part of the cause of obstructive sleep apnea is excessive relaxation of the muscles of the throat or airway and that’s precisely what the Inspire Device or the upper airway stimulator is designed to help with. It’s designed to help improve that muscle tone while it’s on in a patient who is sleeping with obstructive sleep apnea.”