Dr. Sam Daniel This is Me

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1. 1. The Montreal Children's Hospital - Departments

   www.thechildren.com/en/departm - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/19/2008   Last Visited: 8/19/2008

   Dr. Sam Daniel

2. 2. The Montreal Children's Hospital - News

   www.thechildren.com/en/news/ne - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/17/2008   Last Visited: 4/29/2008

   Now, thanks to Dr. Sam Daniel, Associate Director of Research of the Otorhinolaryngology Division at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre, this protein has become an effective method to save newborns suffering from CHARGE Syndrome from having to undergo devastating tracheotomies.Dr. Daniel describes the case of the first infant patient treated with the toxin in an article from the Archives of Otolaryngology dated March 17th.
   
   CHARGE Syndrome is rare, but it can become life-threatening in its most severe form.The syndrome includes a variety of birth defects in different organs, such as the heart, eyes or ears, but it also affects the salivary glands.They are hyper-stimulated and secrete excessive fluids that are discarded into the lungs, causing asphyxia.This was the case for the patient that Dr. Daniel discusses in his article: at the age of two and a half months, little Franck (not his real name) was still unable to breathe without assistance and a tracheotomy seemed inevitable in order to relieve his respiratory system.
   
   Seeing the despair of Franck's parents, Dr. Daniel proposed an experimental treatment as a last recourse: the injection of a minute dose of Botox into each of Franck's salivary glands.This had never been done before on such a young child, but no other option could prevent permanent intubation.Two weeks after the injections, Franck's extubation was a success.He now leads the normal life of a three-year-old boy at home with his parents.
   
   Botulinum toxin is a very powerful neurotoxin, meaning that it blocks nerve activity.In Franck's case, it blocked the nerves that stimulated his salivary glands thereby reducing their secretions to a normal level.The infant then needed repeated injections every four to six months for one and a half years until his glands shrunk and stopped overproducing saliva.
   
   Since this first attempt 5 years ago, Dr. Daniel has performed over 1000 Botox injections in young children including 12 in newborns."This treatment is extremely effective, and to date I have not encountered any major side effects despite the bad press Botox got recently.It also helps us considerably improve the lives of our patients," he explained.
   
   Dr Daniel has started sharing his expertise by training specialists in many hospitals around the world and in Canada.The interdisciplinary Saliva Management Clinic he founded at the MAB-MacKay Rehabilitation Centre, the first of its kind in Quebec, helps children and teens who are socially stigmatized and isolated because of their excessive drooling.It has recently celebrated its 3-year anniversary and has received an Award of Excellence for Innovation to acknowledge its development of novel methodologies and therapeutic/rehabilitative approaches for motor deficiencies.L'Association des ,tablissements de r,adaptation en d,ficience physique du Qu,bec (AERDPQ) presented the Centre with the award during its recent annual banquet.
   
   Dr Sam Daniel is Associate Director of Research of the Otorhinolaryngology Division at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre, and Associate professor at McGill University,

3. 3. chealth.canoe.ca

   chealth.canoe.ca/channel_healt - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/28/2008   Last Visited: 5/12/2008

   Dr. Sam Daniel, director of the McGill Auditory Sciences Laboratory at the Montreal Children's Hospital, launched the study after a patient in her 30s complained of a blocked ear.The woman had used the product Cerumenex, which can be purchased in drug stores.
   
   "She said, 'it's strange, my ear is even more blocked than before,"' said Daniel.
   ...
   Daniel is not concerned about use of the product by people with healthy eardrums.
   
   "My problem with this product is it's available on the shelf, without any prescription.Anyone with a blocked ear or sensation of blockage can walk in and just put it in their ear, and they may not know that the reason they're feeling blocked - it's not a wax plug, but a perforation."
   
   Daniel studied the medical literature and couldn't find any studies that looked at hearing loss or other problems among people who have used eardrops to break up excess ear wax.
   
   His study, conducted on chinchillas, was published in the journal The Laryngoscope.
   
   Among the animals with perforated eardrums, "all of them developed hearing loss, most of them developed the hearing loss after a single application, and as early as 24 hours after the application," Daniel, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said from Montreal.
   
   Animals with healthy eardrums did not experience hearing loss after the drops, but "a fair number developed inflammation of the canal and some of them got an otitis externa - the canal was weeping for a few days," he said.
   
   He said he believes the findings from the animal model are applicable to humans because they have a similar hearing mechanism.
   ...
   When doctors treat people with earwax buildup, Daniel said they have a number of approaches to choose from, including suctioning, gentle irrigation and using a little spoon-shaped surgical instrument called a curette.
   
   He also said further tests are being done using other eardrops containing triethanolamine polypeptide, the same active ingredient that's in Cerumenex.
   
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