Any person experiencing hearing problems should seek medical attention promptly to allow for the early detection of ear tumors in case these turn out to be the cause of the problem, Taipei City Hospital said yesterday.
While hearing loss is often regarded as a relatively benign annoyance that accompanies old age, it can be a symptom of dangerous ear tumors, said Li Kuo-hsi (李國熙), director of the ear, nose and throat division at the hospital’s Renai (仁愛) branch.
The hospital reported that it has seen a sharp rise in ear tumor cases this year.
Tumors found along the nerve connecting the ears to the brain account for almost 10 percent of all cranial tumors, Li said.
Although these types of tumors will typically not spread to other parts of the body, they can compress and damage the cochlear nerve as they grow, leading to hearing loss.
“Left untreated, these tumors can grow large enough to compress other nerves, leading to facial contortion and paralysis if it reaches the facial nerves,” Li said.
“A slightly larger tumor will start to compress the brain stem, endangering the patient’s life by leading to irregular changes in breathing, pulse and blood pressure,” he added.
Li said that promptly diagnosing tumors is key to their being treated effectively. While smaller tumors can be controlled with radiation therapy, large tumors require surgery that can often result in permanent hearing loss, he said.
He added that the smaller the tumors are when removed, the less risk there is that surgery will damage facial or other nerves.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS