A method for stable integration of titanium-implants in bone tissue has been developed at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Screw shaped implants have been inserted in the temporal bone using a delicate surgical technique. After healing-in of the implants it is, in a later séance, possible to penetrate the skin to establish a reaction-free percutaneous passage. An up to 5-year clinical follow-up has shown the possibilities of this new method in the treatment of patients with e.g. certain hearing disorders or facial defects after tumour surgery.
A wholly unselected material of 56 patients with malignant tumors in the nasopharynx is presented. The individual course of each patient is tabulated. On the basis of the given therapy, mainly radiotherapy, the poor long-term prognosis of these patients is discussed. Stress is laid on the important problem of palliation in the final stage.
An unselected material of 177 patients with malignant tumours of the oral cavity is presented and classified according to the TNM system. A therapeutic classification based on the TNM system is proposed. The material is analyzed regarding the 5-year survival rate and the frequency of recurrences in different therapeutic groups.
A study of 1371 men 20, 30, 50 and 60 years old and living in Göteborg was performed to obtain information on the incidence and prevalence of otitis media in a non-selected population. In addition to anamnestical data, a thorough examination of the ENT-status was made by one observer. There was no indication that otitis media has become a more rare disease since the early part of the century. However, the course of the disease does seem to be shorter and milder in more recent decades. This conclusion is supported by a substantially higher frequency of grave pathologic changes in the tympanic membranes in the two oldest cohorts compared with the two younger. A further indication is that mastoidectomies have become a rare type of operation during recent decades.
The Study of Men Born in 1913 is a prospective population study of cardiovascular diseases in Gothenburg, Sweden, that started in 1963. To describe survival curves and mortality pattern, all boy-children born alive in 1913 in the city of Gothenburg, were identified. This birth cohort was followed from birth to age 70 for residence, vital status and cause of death. At the age of 50 years, 25% of the birth cohort were dead and at age 70, 43% had died. The high infant mortality and the great impact of infectious diseases in the beginning of this century is illustrated. The death rate for the cohort was almost identical to national figures for men in the same age group. Men who migrated from Gothenburg had a death rate very similar to those who stayed. It can therefore be concluded that the men in the Study of Men Born in 1913 is a representative sample not only of men in Gothenburg but also of men in Sweden as far as mortality is concerned. Special attention was paid to death from otitis media complications, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. Few persons died from these diseases before age 50 when the prospective study started and therefore did not influence the study of the natural history for these conditions to any great extent. Otitis media infections might be studied retrospectively from this age.