Hazem Saleh

OBJECTIVES: To describe the inside out surgical anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery and to resolve the ambiguities in the nomenclature of its main branches.

STUDY DESIGN: Endoscopic dissection of the superior laryngeal artery in the paraglottic space of larynges of fresh frozen cadavers and a review of the literature.

SETTING: A center for anatomy encompassing facilities for latex injection into the cervical arteries of human donor bodies and a laryngeal dissection station equipped with a video-guided endoscope and a 3-dimensional camera.

METHODS: Video-guided endoscopic dissection of 12 hemilarynges in fresh frozen cadavers whose cervical arteries were injected with red latex. Description of the inside-out surgical anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery and its main branches. Review of the previous reports describing the anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery.

RESULTS: From inside the larynx, the artery was exposed upon its entry through the thyrohyoid membrane or through the foramen thyroideum. It was traced ventrocaudally in the paraglottic space exposing its branches to the epiglottis, the arytenoid, and the laryngeal muscles and mucosa. Its terminal branch was followed until it left the larynx through the cricothyroid membrane. Branches of the artery, previously described under different names, appeared to supply the same anatomical domains.

CONCLUSION: Mastering the inside out anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery is mandatory to control any intraoperative or postoperative hemorrhage during transoral laryngeal microsurgery or during transoral robotic surgery. Naming the artery's main branches according to their domain of supply would resolve the ambiguities resulting from various nomenclatures.

In vivo responses to gold nanoparticles (GNPs) vary not only according to the size, shape, surface charge, and capping agent of GNPs but also according to the animal model, the route of administration, and the exposure frequency and duration. We illustrate here the changes in some hematologic parameters, in the hepatic and renal functions, and in the histopathology of solid organs after multiple intraperitoneal injections of 18 nm GNPs in adult male Syrian golden hamsters. We scored the histopathological changes in the liver and kidneys to grade the deleterious effects. Multiple intraperitoneal injections of 18 nm GNPs in hamsters were nonlethal in the short term but resulted in macrocytosis and hypochromasia, leukocytosis, neutrophilia, lymphocytosis, and monocytosis. The hepatic and renal functions showed nonsignificant changes; however, histopathological examination showed hepatic and renal alterations ranging from mild to marked degeneration, with occasional necrosis of hepatocytes and tubular epithelium.