Our team of specialists and staff believe that informed patients are better equipped to make decisions regarding their health and well being. For your personal use, we have created an extensive patient library covering an array of educational topics. Browse through these diagnoses and treatments to learn more about topics of interest to you. Or, for a more comprehensive search of our entire Web site, enter your term(s) in the search bar provided.
As always, you can contact our office to answer any questions or concerns.
Our Library at a quick glance:
Ears
- Children and Facial Paralysis
- Child's Hearing Loss
- Cholesteatoma
- Cochlear Implants
- Dizziness and Motion Sickness
- Fall Prevention
- Ear Plastic Surgery
- Ear Tubes
- Earaches
- Ears and Altitude
- Earwax
- Quick Glossary for Good Ear Health
- Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease
- Better Ear Health
- Buying a Hearing Aid
- Child Screening
- Chronic Otitis Media
- Cochlear-Meningitis Vaccination
- Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat Problems
- Ear Infection and Vaccines
- Your Genes and Hearing Loss
- How the Ear Works
- Hyperacusis
- Know the Power of Sound
- Noise-Induced Hearing Loss In Children
- Pediatric Obesity
- What You Should Know About Otosclerosis
- When Your Child Has Tinnitus
- Why Do Children Have Earaches?
- Infant Hearing Loss
- Noise and Hearing Protection
- Perforated Eardrum
- Swimmer's Ear
- Tinnitus (also, heres a link to a very good tinnitus organization ATA)
- TMJ
Throat
- About Your Voice
- Common Problems That Can Affect Your Voice
- Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat
- Effects of Medications on Voice
- Gastroesphageal Reflux (GERD)
- How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
- Laryngeal (Voice Box) Cancer
- Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Children
- Nodules, Polyps, and Cysts
- Pediatric GERD
- Pediatric Obesity and Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders
- Special Care for Occupational and Professional Voice Users
- Tips for Healthy Voices
- Tonsils and Adenoids
- Tonsillectomy Procedures
- Tonsillitis
- Tonsils and Adenoids PostOp
- Vocal Cord Paralysis
- GERD and LPR
- Hoarseness
- How the Voice Works
- Secondhand Smoke
- Sore Throats
- Swallowing Disorders
Nose and Mouth
- Allergies and Hay Fever
- Antihistamines, Decongestants, and "Cold" Remedies
- Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
- Facial Sports Injuries
- 20 Questions about Your Sinuses
- Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)
- Allergic Rhinitis, Sinusitis, and Rhinosinusitis
- Antibiotics and Sinusitis
- Are We Through With Chew Yet?
- Could My Child Have Sleep Apnea?
- Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat Problems
- Deviated Septum
- Do I Have Sinusitis?
- How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
- Pediatric Obesity
- Sinus Headaches
- Sinus Pain
- Sinus Surgery
- Sinusitis: Special Considerations for Aging Patients
- Tips for Sinus Sufferers
- Tongue-tie (Ankyloglossia)
- Your Nose: The Guardian Of Your Lungs
- Fungal Sinusitis
- Mouth Sores
- Nasal Fractures
- Nose Surgery
- Nosebleeds
- Post-Nasal Drip
- Salivary Glands
- Secondhand Smoke
- Sinusitis
- Smell and Taste
- Smokeless Tobacco
- Snoring
- Stuffy Noses
- TMJ Pain
Head and Neck
- Facial Plastic Surgery
- Facial Sports Injuries
- Children and Facial Trauma
- Pediatric Head and Neck Tumors
- Head and Neck Cancer
- Thyroid Nodules
- Laryngeal (Voice Box) Cancer
- Pediatric Thyroid Cancer
- Rhabdomyosarcoma
- Smokeless Tobacco
- Are We Through With Chew Yet?
- Quiting Smokeless Tobacco
- Secondhand Smoke
- Skin Cancer
Pediatric
- Child Screening
- Children and Facial Trauma
- Could My Child Have Sleep Apnea?
- Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat
- How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
- Pediatric Food Allergies
- Pediatric Obesity and Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders
- Pediatric Sinusitis
- Secondhand Smoke and Children
- Tonsillitis
- Tonsillectomy Procedures
- Tonsils and Adenoids PostOp
- Ear Tubes
Espanol
- Colesteatoma
- Diábolos Estudio acerca de causas y opciones terapéuticas
- Doctor? ¿Por Qué a Mi Hijo Le Duele El OÃdo?
- Doctor? ¿Qué Causa El Ruido En El OÃdo?
- El Humo del Tabaco Ambiental y los Niños
- La pérdida de la audición
- Otitis Media Crónica (Infección del OÃdo Medio) e Hipocusia
- Perfóracion Timpánica
- Qué Debe Saber Acerca de la Otoesclerosis
- Screening de Audición en Niños
- Sirvan Las Amigdalas Y Los Adenoides?
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of a sarcoma, which means a cancer of the bone, soft tissues, or connective tissue. This cancer can occur anywhere in the body but is most often found in the head and neck region, followed by the organs associated with reproduction and urination, and the arms or legs.
More than 90 percent of rhabdomyosarcomas are diagnosed in people under 25 years old; about 60 percent of these cases are diagnosed in children under the age of 10. In the United States, rhabdomyosarcoma strikes approximately five in every one million children each year.
The cause of rhabdomyosarcoma is unknown. Some children with certain birth defects are at increased risk, and some families have a gene mutation that elevates risk. However, the vast majority of children with rhabdomyosarcoma do not have any known risk factors.
Rhabdomyosarcoma Symptoms Depend on Where the Tumor Develops:
The otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon is the medical specialist that will identify the symptoms of this cancer in the head and neck region. Specifically, when rhabdomyosarcoma affects the eye or eyelid, the result can be a bulging eye, a swollen eyelid or paralysis of the eye muscles. In the sinuses, rhabdomyosarcoma can cause a stuffy nose, and sometimes a nasal discharge that contains pus or blood. In other locations in the head and neck, the most common symptom of a rhabdomyosarcoma near the surface is a painless lump or swelling that gradually gets larger.
When rhabdomyosarcomas develops in the urogenital tract, the consequence can be tumors causing difficulty in urination, blood in the urine, constipation, a lump or mass inside the vagina, vaginal discharge that contains blood and mucus, or a painless enlargement of one side of the scrotum. Rhabdomyosarcoma appears as a lump or swelling, with or without pain, tenderness and redness. In physically active children, the swelling is sometimes mistaken for an injury related to sports or childhood play.
Call your doctor promptly if your child develops any of these symptoms.
What to Expect When you See the Doctor:
After reviewing your child's symptoms, your doctor will examine your child. Depending on the results of this exam, your doctor may order a regular X-ray as the first test. Computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) might also be needed. If a tumor is found on any of these tests, a small piece of tissue is removed and examined in a laboratory (biopsy).
If the lab tests show signs of a cancerous tumor, your doctor will refer you to a medical center that has the facilities, personnel, and experience to treat childhood cancer. There your child will have more tests to check whether the cancer has spread to the lungs, bones, or elsewhere.
Diagnosis
Once childhood rhabdomyosarcoma is found, more tests will be done to find out if the cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body. This is called staging. Your doctor needs to know how far the cancer has spread to plan treatment.
Treatments:
A rhabdomyosarcoma will continue to grow until it is treated. Without proper treatment, this cancer eventually may spread to the lungs, bone marrow, bones, or lymph nodes. There are treatments for all patients with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma. Three types of treatment are used, most often in combination with each other:
- Surgery
- Chemotherapy (using drugs to kill cancer cells)
- Radiation therapy (using highenergy X-rays or other high-energy rays to kill cancer cells)
Prognosis:
More than 70 percent of children with localized rhabdomyosarcoma enjoy long-term survival. Survival rates depend on initial tumor size, location, appearance under the microscope, how much of the tumor can be removed with surgery, and whether the disease has spread to other parts of the body.
Sources:
emedicine
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
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