Conditions & Diseases

Did you know that there are dif­fer­ent types of ear infec­tions? Each have their own symp­toms and treat­ments. Take a look below to explore the inner ear.

Prostate can­cer affects the prostate gland and may spread to sur­round­ing struc­tures. While most men with prostate can­cer have no symp­toms, physi­cian can find prostate can­cer dur­ing a reg­u­lar check­up, using a com­bi­na­tion of a blood test called a PSA and a dig­i­tal rec­tal exam (DRE).

An esti­mat­ed 53,000 peo­ple are diag­nosed with mouth or throat can­cers each year in the Unit­ed States. These can­cers can be found on your gums, lips, sali­vary glands, tongue, ton­sils and oth­er parts of your mouth and throat. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, these can­cers are more like­ly to occur in men, typ­i­cal­ly over the age of 55, and have been pri­mar­i­ly linked to tobac­co and alco­hol use. While the over­all rate of mouth and throat can­cer cas­es is declin­ing, the rate of throat can­cer cas­es diag­nosed in younger adults and linked to HPV infec­tion are on the rise.

Acne is a skin con­di­tion that occurs when your hair fol­li­cles become plugged with sebum (oil) and dead skin cells. Acne most com­mon­ly appears on your face, neck, chest, back, and shoul­ders. Acne lesions heal slow­ly and when one begins to resolve, oth­ers seem to crop up.

A vari­ety of tests includ­ing Polysomno­gram, Mul­ti-Sleep Laten­cy Test ( MSLT) and Main­te­nance of Wake­ful­ness Test (MWT) are all pos­si­ble sleep stud­ies your physi­cian can order to eval­u­ate your sleep pat­terns. The DMG Sleep Cen­ter is made up of pri­vate bed­rooms and are sim­i­lar to typ­i­cal hotel rooms, with pri­vate bath­rooms avail­able for show­er­ing after the study is com­plet­ed. The rooms are sup­plied with pil­lows, blan­kets, tow­els, wash­cloths and toiletries.

Basal cell car­ci­no­ma (BCC) is a skin can­cer that aris­es from basal cells. Basal cells are found in the low­er lay­ers of the skin. The prog­no­sis for patients with BCC is excel­lent, but if the lesion is left untreat­ed, it can cause sig­nif­i­cant dis­ease pro­gres­sion. BCC occurs pri­mar­i­ly on the face, head, scalp, neck, and hands.

Cataracts are the lead­ing cause of visu­al loss in adults 55 and over. A cataract is a cloud­ing of the nat­ur­al lens inside your eye. This lens, locat­ed behind the iris, works just like the lens of a cam­era — focus­ing light images on the reti­na, which sends images to the brain. The human lens can become so cloud­ed it pre­vents light and images from reach­ing the reti­na. A cataract can be the rea­son sharp objects become blurred, bright col­ors become dull, or see­ing at night is more dif­fi­cult. It may also be why read­ing glass­es or bifo­cals that used to help you no longer seem to be effective.

This con­di­tion can devel­op as a nat­ur­al part of the aging process, but it may also result from injury to the back. Degen­er­a­tive disc dis­ease gen­er­al­ly begins when small tears appear in the disc wall, called the annu­lus. These tears can cause pain. The tears heal, cre­at­ing scar tis­sue that is not as strong as the orig­i­nal disc wall. If the back is repeat­ed­ly injured, the process of tear­ing and scar­ring may con­tin­ue, weak­en­ing the disc wall. Over time, the nucle­us (cen­ter) of the disc becomes dam­aged and los­es some of its water con­tent. This cen­ter is called the pul­po­sus, and its water con­tent is need­ed to keep the disc func­tion­ing as a shock absorber for the spine. Unable to act as a cush­ion, the nucle­us col­laps­es. The ver­te­brae above and below this dam­aged disc slide clos­er togeth­er. This improp­er align­ment caus­es the fact joints-the areas where the ver­te­bral bones tough- to twist into an unnat­ur­al posi­tion. In time, this awk­ward posi­tion­ing of the ver­te­brae may cre­ate bone spurs. If these spurs grow into the spinal canal, they may pinch the spinal cord and nerves (a con­di­tion called spinal stenosis).

There are many chal­lenges can­cer patients face through­out their treat­ment includ­ing appear­ance relat­ed side effects. These sim­ple do’s and don’ts can help you deal with any hair, skin, or nail changes you might experience.

Swal­low­ing is a com­plex process and some­times there are com­pli­ca­tions, such as dys­pha­gia. Our ENT depart­ment dis­cuss­es how dys­pha­gia occurs and how it can be treated.