There are many studies on the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and economic burden of diabetes across the past four decades in Korea. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of nationwide study regarding diabetes encompassing all age group. Eight years ago, the Committee on the Epidemiology of Diabetes Mellitus of Korean Diabetes Association collaborated with Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service to evaluate the status of diabetes care and characteristics in diabetic patients in Korea. In 2007, the collaborative task force team published a comprehensive survey titled "Diabetes in Korea 2007." In this review, we reappraise the diabetic epidemics from the joint report and suggest further studies that are needed to be investigated in the future.
Advisory Committees ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Joints ; Korea ; Prevalence

Since laparoscopic liver resection was first introduced in 2001, Korean surgeons have chosen a laparoscopic procedure as one of the treatment options for benign or malignant liver disease. We distributed and analyzed a nationwide questionnaire to members of the Korean Laparoscopic Liver Surgery Study Group (KLLSG) in order to evaluate the current status of laparoscopic liver resection in Korea. Questionnaires were sent to 24 centers of KLLSG. The questionnaire consisted of operative procedure, histological diagnosis of liver lesions, indications for resection, causes of conversion to open surgery, and postoperative outcomes. A laparoscopic liver resection was performed in 416 patients from 2001 to 2008. Of 416 patients, 59.6% had malignant tumors, and 40.4% had benign diseases. A total laparoscopic approach was performed in 88.7%. Anatomical laparoscopic liver resection was more commonly performed than non-anatomical resection (59.9% vs 40.1%). The anatomical laparoscopic liver resection procedures consisted of a left lateral sectionectomy (29.3%), left hemihepatectomy (19.2%), right hemihepatectomy (6%), right posterior sectionectomy (4.3%), central bisectionectomy (0.5%), and caudate lobectomy (0.5%). Laparoscopy-related serious complications occurred in 12 (2.8%) patients. The present study findings provide data in terms of indication, type and method of liver resection, and current status of laparoscopic liver resection in Korea.
*Hepatectomy/statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; *Laparoscopy/statistics & numerical data ; Liver/*surgery ; Liver Diseases/pathology/surgery ; Liver Neoplasms/pathology/surgery ; Postoperative Complications/epidemiology ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea

There have been no long-term complications or life-threatening adverse effects related to botulinum toxin treatment for any cosmetic indications. Nevertheless, there are well-known, mild side effects of botulinum toxin treatment on the upper face, though most of them are self limited with time. However, excluding brow ptosis, reports about site specific side effects are few and anecdotal. We experienced cases of exaggeration of wrinkles after botulinum toxin injection for forehead horizontal lines, and report them here. In our cases, new appearance of a noticeable glabellar protrusion following botulinum toxin injection on the forehead was observed in 2 patients. Also, a new deep wrinkle on one side of the forehead just above the eyebrow appeared in another 2 patients. The exaggerated wrinkles nearly disappeared without treatment by week 4 in all subjects. These exaggerations of wrinkles may be caused by hyperactivity and overcompensation of untreated muscles. With the increasing availability of diverse botulinum toxin for cosmetic purposes, physicians and patients should be aware of this temporary change after therapeutic injections. We recommend explaining this possible effect prior to injection, for better understanding of treatment for cosmetic indications.
Botulinum Toxins ; Cosmetics ; Eyebrows ; Forehead ; Humans ; Muscles

Lymphangioma is a rare benign congenital tumor of the lymphatic system, which is commonly diagnosed before 2 years of age. In the natronal report, cystic lymphangioma was usually reported as a huge translucent mass located in the head and neck area. It's occurrence in retropharyngeal space with respiratory obstruction and swallowing difficulty in neonate is extremely rare and postoperative nasopharyngeal reflux has rarely been reported. Complete resection is the standard therapy. However, involvement of the upper airway may be determining prognosis in the extensive lymphangiomas because of the difficulty of complete excision. We present a case of cystic lymphangioma in neonate which was initially asymptomatic but gradually progressed to cause respiratory obstruction due to enlargement. After resection, nasopharyngeal reflux developed with dysfunction of the soft palate and gradually improved with conservative care over 5 months.
Deglutition ; Head ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Lymphangioma ; Lymphangioma, Cystic ; Lymphatic System ; Neck ; Palate, Soft ; Pharyngeal Diseases ; Prognosis

Salivary duct lithiasis is a condition characterized by the obstruction of a salivary gland or its excretory duct due to the formation of calcareous concretions or sialoliths resulting in salivary ectasia and even provoking the subsequent dilation of the salivary gland. It most commonly involves submandibular gland (80 to 90%) and less frequently parotid (10 to 20%). The authors report 2 cases of parotid sialolithiasis. The first case involved a 46-year-old male patient complaining of the left parotid area pain and swelling, and presenting with a salivary calculus in the left parotid duct. When the patient was diagnosed, he refused surgical removal. The second case involved a 41-year-old male patient complaining of the right parotid area pain and swelling, and presenting with a salivary calculus in the right parotid duct. The sialolith was surgically removed under general anesthesia. In this paper, we also reviewed a series of concepts related to the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of sialolithiasis.
Adult ; Anesthesia, General ; Diagnosis ; Dilatation, Pathologic ; Humans ; Lithiasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Parotid Diseases ; Salivary Calculi ; Salivary Duct Calculi ; Salivary Ducts ; Salivary Gland Calculi* ; Salivary Glands ; Submandibular Gland

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Minimal hepatic encephalopthy in patients with clinically asymptomatic chronic progressive liver disease may have adverse effects on daily activity. We evaluated the differences in the cognitive function of patients with chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis group according to the Child-Pugh classification. METHODS: We enrolled 61 consecutive chronic liver disease patients. We used the following study instruments: visual continuous performance test, a spatial memory test, the Wisconsin card-sorting test chosen from Neuroscan and STIM system (Study of the Usefulness of Computerized Neuropsychological Test, Neurosoft company, New York, NY, USA), a global-local processing test and an electroencephalogram (EEG). RESULTS: A significant correlation was found between neurologic abnormalities and the degree of liver disease. The result of the neuropsychological test and the EEG showed that cognitive function decreased according to the severity of chronic liver disease, especially in liver cirrhosis. Cirrhotic patients, especially in Child-Pugh C group, exhibited selective deficits in complex attention and fine motor skills as well as visual spatial perception, with preservation of memory. CONCLUSIONS: The STIM and EEG are simple, subjective and reproducible methods and may be used as early detection methods of minimal hepatic encephalopthy.
Adult ; Chronic Disease ; Cognition ; *Electroencephalography ; Female ; Hepatic Encephalopathy/*diagnosis/etiology ; Hepatitis, Viral, Human/complications ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Neuropsychological Tests

ABSTRACT: The present study was designed to investigate the possibility of restoring the testicular steroidogenic ability of the aged Brown Norway rats by administering luteinizing hormone (LH) and thyroxine (Thy). Rats of 3, 6, 12 months (M) of age (n = 8 per group) and four groups of 18 month old rats (n = 8 per group) were used. Eighteen month old rats were implanted subdermally with Alzet mini osmotic pumps containing saline (control), luteinizing hormone (LH, 24 microgram/day), thyroxine (Thy, 5 microgram/day) and LH and Thy (LH +Thy, 24 microgramday and 5 microgram/day), respectively for four weeks (i.e testing was done at 19 months). The results showed that the testis volume was unchanged among all treatment groups. The number of Leydig cell per testis was not significantly different among all treatment groups. The average volume of a Leydig cell was significantly decreased at 12 months, and a further reduction was observed at 19 months (saline-treated); values for 19 month LH-and-LH +Thy-treated rats were not significantly lower than those at 3 and 6 months of age. Testosterone secretory capacity per testis and per Leydig cell in vitro were significantly reduced concomitantly with age advancement from 6 to 19 months (saline-treated) of age. These values of LH-and Thy-treated 19 month old rats were similar to those at 12 months. LH +Thy-treated rats were equally capable to 3 and 6 month old rats in producing testicular testosterone in vitro in response to LH. Serum testosterone was unchanged from 3 M to 12 M rats but was reduced in 19M control rats. Both LH and Thy significantly raised these values above the 19M control levels, but they were still lower than the 3 M through 12 M levels. Additionally, LH +Thy significantly raised the serum testosterone levels to those of 12M rats, but these values were significantly lower than those of 3 M and 6 M rats. In summary, the present study demonstrated that the exogenous supplementation of LH and Thy was effective in restoring the steroidogenic potential of the aged Leydig cells; the most effective treatment was LH +Thy, which upgraded the capacity of aged testes to those of 3 and 6 months.
Animals ; Humans ; Infant ; Leydig Cells* ; Lutein* ; Luteinizing Hormone ; Male ; Norway* ; Rats* ; Testis ; Testosterone ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Hormones* ; Thyroxine

We experienced a 25 year-old male patient with typhoid fever complicated with massive hemoptysis. Pulmonary complication in typhoid fever is very rare and to our knowledge, there has been no report of hemoptysis as a main cause of death with this disease. We herein report a rare case of typhoid fever.
Adult ; Cause of Death ; Hemoptysis* ; Humans ; Male ; Salmonella Infections ; Typhoid Fever*

We experienced a 25 year-old male patient with typhoid fever complicated with massive hemoptysis. Pulmonary complication in typhoid fever is very rare and to our knowledge, there has been no report of hemoptysis as a main cause of death with this disease. We herein report a rare case of typhoid fever.
Adult ; Cause of Death ; Hemoptysis* ; Humans ; Male ; Salmonella Infections ; Typhoid Fever*

BACKGROUND: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Despite progress in diagnostic techniques and treatments, management of pneumonia remains challenging, because the precise etiology remains uncertain in as many as 49 % of cases. The limitaions of identifying etiologic agents make it necessary to use empiric antibiotics in almost all patients, and furthermore emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms pose difficulties to the selection of an empiric antibiotic regimen. For the optimal choice of empirical antibiotics, we should know the frequency of etiologic agents and antimicrobial resistance rates in the community. METHODS: A prospective multicenter study of community-acquired pneumonia in Korea was carried out between May 1997 and April 2000. The microbiologic diagnosis was based on the results of sputum culture, blood culture and pleural culture. RESULTS: Five hundred eighty eight cases of community-acquired pneumonia in 562 patients admitted to the hospitals. The mean age was 59.9 with male predominance (58.3%), and 370 (63%) had underlyin gillness. The etiologic agents were identified in 38.3%, and the list of individual agents, in decreasing order, was Streptococcus pneumoniae (21.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (14.8%) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (9.5%), viridans group streptococci (5.7%), Enterobacter cloacae (4.2%), Hemophillus Influenza (3.8%). The rates of admission to the intensive care unit was 10.4%. The motality was 7.1%. Susceptible rates of S. pneumoniae to penicillin was 36.6% and showed multidrug resistant. Forty percents of S. aureus were methicillin-resistant S. aureus. K. penumoniae were susceptible to cephalosporin and quinolone. CONCLUSION: In Korea, S. pneumoniae is the most important agent causing community-acquired pneumonia. Susceptible rates of S. pneumoniae to penicillin was 36.6 % and showed multidrug resistant. Gram negative bacteria such as K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa showed high incidence when compared with that of other countries. Most of them had underlying diseases including bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
Adult* ; Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bronchiectasis ; Diagnosis ; Enterobacter cloacae ; Gills ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Humans ; Incidence ; Influenza, Human ; Intensive Care Units ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Korea ; Lung Diseases, Obstructive ; Male ; Methicillin Resistance ; Mortality ; Penicillins ; Pneumonia* ; Prospective Studies* ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Sputum ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Streptococcus pneumoniae