BACKGROUND: Exogenously administered epinephrine under enflurane anesthesia was known to have mild myocardial sensitizing effect. And N2O activates the sympathetic nervous system mildly. We planed this study to confirm cadiovascular effects of clinically administered epinephrine for hemostasis under the enflurane-N2O anesthesia during tonsillectomy. METHODS: Eighty children scheduled to have tonsillectomy were selected randomly and divided into 2 groups as follows; Group E: 1:100,000 epinephrine 2ug/kg and Group EL: 1:100,000 epinephrine containing 1% lidocaine 2 g/kg. Blood pressure, heart rate, and the occurrence of arrhythmia were evaluated before injection, at injection, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 5 min and 10 min after injection and 1 min after operation start. RESULTS: In both groups, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate are increased. But there are no significant statistical differences in each group and between groups. One min after operation, there are significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate in both groups (p<0.05), but there is no significant difference between groups. CONCLUSION: Under the enflurane-N2O anesthesia of children, 1:100,000 epinephrine 2ug/kg used for hemostasis could be used comparatively safe without any significant hemodynamic changes. But because there is always the possibility of myocardial sensitization, careful observation is necessary during epinephrine injection under the enflurane-N2O anesthesia.
Anesthesia* ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Blood Pressure ; Child ; Enflurane ; Epinephrine* ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics ; Hemostasis* ; Humans ; Lidocaine ; Sympathetic Nervous System ; Tonsillectomy*

No abstract available.
Neurilemmoma* ; Stomach*

The increasingly successful results of hair restoration surgery in the last years have developed the interest and the confidence of patients and it is the most frequently performed esthetic surgery among male patients. Currently, various kinds of techniques for hair restoration surgery including hair transplantation, scalp reduction, and scalp flaps are performed in our clinic. Among these, hair transplantation is the basic and the most popular procedure, which can be performed not only by itself but also in conjunction with other procedures. 123 consecutive cases of hair transplantations were peformed from Jan. 1995 to Feb. 1996 for male pattern baldness, traumatic alopecia, and female pattern baldness under out patient base. The authors introduced a new classification for male pattern baldness, which are the type M, O, C, U, M-O, and C-O after alphabet to make simple and easy for clinical application. The ancillary procedures were scalp reduction, preauricular flap, and scalp expansion. An ellipsis of hair bearing scalp taken from the occipital area was sliced into slit-, mega-, mini-, and micro-grafts. The survival rate of the grafts was over 90% with minimal complications. This hair transplantation technique enabled us to achieve a good density and more natural looking hair with avoidance of cobble stoning and apparent scar.
Alopecia* ; Cicatrix ; Classification ; Hair* ; Humans ; Male* ; Scalp ; Surgery, Plastic ; Survival Rate ; Transplants

Alteration in the hormone level associated with menstrual cycle influences the interaction between the urethra and bladder as well as detrusor function, maybe due to the common embryological origin of lower female genital and urinary tract. We tried to investigate the effect of the menstrual cycle on cystometric diagnosis through this retrospective study. 60 women with regular menstruation were enrolled in this study. The study groups were divided into 2 groups, Group I was women whose symptoms were not influenced by the menstrual cycle, Group II was women whose symptoms were adversely affected premenstrually. The majority of normal cystometric diagnosis were made in the luteal phase (Group I: 42.9% vs 4.4%, p<0.05; Group II: 50.0% vs 22.2%, p<0.05). But diagnosis of genuine stress incontinence, detrusor instability, mixed genuine stress incontinence and detrusor instability were frequently made in the follicular phase of mentruation. Normal cystometric diagnosis in the group II were more commom than the group II ( 36.8% vs 19.7%, p<0.05 ). The results of this study reveal that the timing of cystometric evaluation may influence the the detection of a positive diagnosis. In patients whose symptom are influenced by their menstrual cycle, the luteal phase may not be the correct time to make an accurate diagnosis.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Follicular Phase ; Humans ; Luteal Phase ; Menstrual Cycle* ; Menstruation ; Retrospective Studies ; Urethra ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Tract

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the long-term safety profile and efficacy of Alfuzosin 10 mg once daily in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), under daily practice conditions in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this 6-months, open-label, multicenter, noncomparative, observational study, 511 men were enrolled. International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), IPSS 8th question (bother score), maximum flow rate (Qmax), Danish Prostate Symptom Score (DAN-PSS) were evaluated at baseline and after 3, 6 months of treatment. Safety was analyzed in all patients exposed to alfuzosin (n=480). Analysis was performed at end-point in the intent to treat population (n=368). RESULTS: Of the 511 enrolled patients in the study, 218 patients (42.7%) dropped out. With alfuzosin, IPSS and bother score significantly improved from baseline by -6.7+/-6.4 (-31.9%, p<0.001) and -1.2+/-1.2 (-29.3%, p<0.001), respectively. Nocturia also significantly improved from 2.3+/-1.3 at baseline to 1.8+/-1.0 at end-point (-0.6+/-1.1, p<0.001). In the subgroup of patients likely to be obstructed (Qmax <10 ml/sec at baseline), Qmax improved from 8.3+/-1.2 at baseline to 13.7+/-6.1 at end-point (+5.4+/-5.8, p=0.001). In patients with pain/discomfort on ejaculation, weighted score significantly improved from 2.4+/-2.2 at baseline to 1.5+/-1.9 at end-point (-31%, p=0.002). There were no clinically relevant changes in sitting systolic BP and diastolic BP at endpoint. CONCLUSIONS: Alfuzosin 10 mg once daily administered for 6-months is effective in improving LUTS and quality of life, and is well tolerated from a sexual and cardiovascular perspective, including in elderly men and those receiving anti-hypertensive co-medication.
Aged ; Ejaculation ; Humans ; Korea ; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms ; Male ; Nocturia ; Prostate ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Quality of Life ; Quinazolines

We report one case of renal vein thrombosis that was mimicking symptoms for urinary caculi.
Renal Veins* ; Thrombosis*

We treated 11 patients with advanced transitional cell carcinoma of upper urinary tract with adjuvant M-VAC chemotherapy and their median survival time was compared with 9 patients without M-VAC chemotherapy as e historical group. The total number of cycles per each patient ranged from 1 to 5 with a mean of 3.4. Of these patients, 8 patients could be evaluated for response and 4 patients were responded (2 complete and 2 incomplete. response rate 50%). The median duration of response was 26 months for complete responders and 4.5 months for incomplete responders. The median duration of survival for all chemotherapy group, complete responders, progression and historical control group were 22, 23+, 14 and 21 months. respectively. Median survival was 22 months in all 11 patients. 23+ months in clinical responders, 14 months in progression and 21 months in historical control group. Although overall survival was not prolonged significantly in chemotherapy than the historical control group, M-VAC was effective in small proportion of patients (CR: 2/8). The duration of survival of the patients with complete remission was prolonged significantly.
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* ; Doxorubicin* ; Drug Therapy* ; Humans ; Urinary Tract* ; Vinblastine*

BACKGROUND: Cicletanine bydrochloride is a newly developed anti-hypertensive agent. The presence of a furopyridine group characterizes its uncommon chemical structure as an antihypertensive molecule. This clinical trial was performed to confirm the efficacy and safety of cicletanine for the treatment of hypertension as a monotherapy. METHODS: In order to investigate the efficacy and safety of oral cicletanine, a now class of antihypertensive durgs, the furopyridines, on essential hypertension, a single daily dose of 50mg to 100mg cicletanine was administered in 46 hypertensive patients with diastolic blood pressure in the range of 95mmHg-115mmHg. The patients were asked to cut off other anti hypertensive agents for 10 weeks prior to this clinical trial. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured every 4 weeks. The complete blood count, blood chemistry done by SMA-12, serum electrolytes and urinalysis were performed at the 12th week of therapy. RESULTS: 1) Baseline blood pressures after 2 weeks of placebo at sitting and standing positions were 158.7+/-16.1/102.9+/-6.2 and 148.7+/-14.5/102.7+/-6.7mmHg, respectively. The overall slope which represents the tendency of blood pressure decline over the treatment period with cicletanine for all the patients in each position are as follows ; -0.726(SE : 0.150) for sitting systolic blood pressure(BP), -0.390(SE : 0.080) for sitting diastolic BP, -0.214(SE : 0.183) for standing systolic BP and -0.341(SE : 0.139) for standing diastolic BP. 2) The slope of sitting systolic BP line in cicletanine 100mg treated group was significantly stiffer than that of cicletanine 50mg treated group(-0.445 vs -1.021, p=0.0336). 3) There were no significant interval changes in heart rate over the treatment period. 4) There were no significant interval changes in blood chemistry, electrolytes, hematologic findings and urinalysis over the treatment period. 5) Several side effects were observed in six patients(epigastric discomfort in 4, easy fatigue and insomnia in one patient, respectively). CONCLUSION: Treatment with cicletanine was well-tolerated and the incidence of side effects was relatively low. Because of its unique anti-hypertensive mechanism and moderated antihypertensive effects, cicletanine may be well suited in the treatment of hypertension combined with other classes of antihypertensive agents.
Antihypertensive Agents ; Blood Cell Count ; Blood Pressure ; Chemistry ; Electrolytes ; Fatigue ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Urinalysis

PURPOSE: Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is the most widely used tumor marker for detecting colorectal cancer. This study was designed to evaluate the level of serum CEA that is associated with recurrence after potentially curative surgery for colorectal cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the pre- and post-operative levels of serum CEA in 246 patients with colorectal cancer and they had undergone potentially curative surgery from 1996 through 2005. RESULTS: The pre-operative CEA level was significantly associated with the number of metastatic lymph nodes, the tumor size and the recurrence rate. The feature that was associated with recurrent disease on multivariate analysis was the pre-operative level of serum CEA. CONCLUSION: In order to detect the recurrence of colorectal cancer, we should closely follow up with frequent checks of the CEA level after surgery for those patients who had a high preoperative CEA level.
Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Multivariate Analysis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The effect of entecavir (ETV) in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is well established. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of ETV treatment at 0.5 mg/day in ETV-switch and ETV-retreatment groups of CHB patients without lamivudine (LMV)-resistance from LMV monotherapy. METHODS: Study subjects included 350 CHB patients who had been treated with 0.5 mg/day of ETV for at least 6 months. Patients were divided into two groups: an LMV-naive group (n = 263) and an LMV-experienced group (n = 87). The LMV-experienced group was further subdivided into an ETV-switch group (n = 43) and an ETV-retreatment group (n = 44) defined by the period between stopping LMV and restarting ETV. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in mean age, sex ratio, prevalence of liver cirrhosis and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positivity between the LMV-naive and -experienced groups. However, the LMV-naive group had higher aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and a shorter ETV treatment duration than the LMV-experienced group. There were also distributional differences in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels of LMV-naive and -experienced patients prior to ETV treatment. After ETV treatment, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the rates of undetectable HBV DNA at 6, 12 and 18 months; HBeAg loss and seroconversion; normalization of ALT; virologic breakthrough; and ETV-genotypic resistance. Lastly, the effect of ETV did not differ between the ETV-switch and -retreatment groups. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of ETV in the LMV-experienced group without LMV-resistance did not differ from that in the LMV-naive group. Furthermore, there was no difference in the effect of ETV between the ETV-switch and -retreatment groups.
Alanine Transaminase ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; DNA ; Guanine ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Lamivudine ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Prevalence ; Sex Ratio