OBJECTIVE: Fourteen cases of vaginal vault evisceration after total laparoscopic hysterectomy were presented. We review pertinent literature, discuss precipitating causes, clinical manifestations, and management that was performed. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 14 women with vaginal vault evisceration after total laparoscopic hysterectectom between March 2000 and October 2012 at 4 hospitals of CHA University. RESULTS: Between March 2000 and March 2006, 1,887 women underwent total laparoscopic hysterectomy and 12 vaginal vault eviscerations (0.6%) were presented. Thereafter, only two new cases were presented. The precipitating event was coitus in nine cases (64%), sit-ups in two cases (14%), spontaneous (urine ascites), lymphatic ascites, and unknown in one case (7%) each. Prolapsed organs were small bowels, omentum, and salpinx. Common presenting symptoms were pain, bleeding, watery discharge, and protruded mass (bowels). Eleven women underwent transvaginal repair (79%) - two laparotomic (14%) and one laparoscopic (7%), and none have exhibited sequelae. CONCLUSION: Coitus was the triggering event in most cases. For vaginal vault evisceration following total laparoscopic hysterectomy, vaginal repair should be first considered.
Ascites ; Coitus ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Hysterectomy, Vaginal ; Medical Records ; Omentum

BACKGROUND: In drug therapy for patients with arthritis, a naproxen/esomeprazole combination drug may be a tolerable choice because it can minimize gastrointestinal and cardiovascular adverse effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in quality of life (QOL), medication adherence, and satisfaction after switch from the existing drug to the combination drug. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between the above-mentioned variables and the stratified demographic and medical data of the patients. METHODS: A prospective, noninterventional, observational study was conducted in 30 hospitals between May 2014 and July 2016. In total, 2,308 patients with osteoarthritis, 99 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and 76 patients with ankylosing spondylitis were enrolled. Demographic information (age, sex, body mass index [BMI], alcohol consumption, and smoking) and medical information (type of arthritis, duration of disease, and comorbidities) were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. Patients were observed for more than three months after switching to the combination drug. Data on the QOL (EuroQoL 5-Dimension questionnaire [EQ-5D questionnaire]), medication adherence (Morisky Medication Adherence Scale [MMAS]), and satisfaction were collected at the first and last visits. RESULTS: A total of 2,483 patients enrolled at 30 hospitals completed the questionnaire. After the switch to the combination drug, the mean EQ-5D score improved from 0.72 ± 0.17 to 0.79 ± 0.14 (p < 0.001), and significant improvement was associated with female sex (p = 0.016), shorter disease duration (p < 0.001), and absence of comorbidities (p < 0.001). The mean MMAS score was 6.38 ± 1.77, indicating medium adherence. Satisfaction was significantly higher in female patients (p < 0.001), in patients with a shorter disease duration (p < 0.001), osteoarthritis (p = 0.003), and no comorbidities (p < 0.001). Serious drug-related adverse effects did not occur. CONCLUSIONS The overall QOL was improved with medium adherence after the switch to the combination drug. On the basis of the analysis of stratified data, sex, age, drinking, smoking, disease duration, comorbidities, and BMI might be associated with QOL, satisfaction, and adherence.

OBJECTIVE: Laparoscopic vaginal vault closure with conventional straight instruments is the final barrier to single-port access total laparoscopic hysterectomy (SPA-TLH). The aim of this study is to find out the safer, easier, simpler, faster, and even cheaper way to overcome it. METHODS: Vaginal vault suturing techniques of 152 consecutive single-port access total laparoscopic hysterectomy cases performed by the author in Gangnam CHA Hospital, CHA University from October 1, 2003 to June 30, 2012, were retrospectively analysed with medical records and DVDs. RESULTS: Of 152 patients who were attempted SPA-TLH, 119 patients (78%) were finished their operations without conversion to multi-port laparoscopy or laparotomy. Of women with successful SPA-TLH, 8 cases (7%) were closed their vaginal vaults vaginally (median, 20 minutes; range, 15-44 minutes), and 111 cases (93%) laparoscopically (median, 44 minutes; range, 13-56 minutes). Laparoscopic vault closure techniques were continuous suture (4 cases, 3%; median, 36 minutes; range, 30-45 minutes), interrupted sutures using knot-pusher (7 cases, 6%; median, 52 minutes; range, 48-56 minutes) Endo Stitch suture (2 cases, 2%; median, 32 minutes; range, 13-50 minutes), continuous vault closure using percutaneous sling sutures (PCSS) (92 cases, 77%; median, 40 minutes; range, 19-56 minutes), and continuous vault closure without PCSS (6 cases, 5%; median, 23 minutes; range, 16-31 minutes). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic vault closure using PCSS in SPA-TLH only with conventional straight instruments is the best way to overcome the barrier and the short-cut to shorten the learning curve to date.
Female ; Humans ; Hysterectomy* ; Laparoscopy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Suture Techniques* ; Sutures

Ipsilateral fractures of the femoral neck and shaft are relatively common injuries and accompany 2% to 9% of all femoral shaft fractures. On the other hand, it is extremely rare for these injuries to occur bilaterally. This paper reports the authors’ experience of a case with bilateral femoral neck and shaft fractures. The patient sustained multiple injuries, including liver laceration with hemoperitoneum, bilateral open fractures of the tibia, and bilateral femoral neck, and shaft fractures caused by a high-speed motor vehicle accident. Under the circumstances, damage-control orthopedic principles were applied, and external fixators were initially placed. After the patient’s general condition showed improvement, both femurs were fixed with a reconstruction nail. Fracture healing was achieved without complications, such as avascular necrosis of the femoral head. Despite the rare occurrence, this paper describes this case because these injuries must be managed with meticulous attention.

Torsion of uterine adnexa is an important cause of acute abdominal pain in females. The main organ which can cause torsion is the ovaries, but torsions of the fallopian tube, subserosal myoma, paratubal cyst, and even the uterine body have been reported. The incidence of isolated fallopian tubal torsion is very rare. Even more rarely, it can coil around nearby organs such as the utero-ovarian ligament, showing similar clinical manifestations with those of adnexal torsion. We experienced an extremely rare case of acute abdomen induced by ovarian congestion triggered by the fallopian tube accompanying a paratubal cyst coiling around the utero-ovarian ligament. The right paratubal cyst was misinterpreted as being part of a cystic component of the left ovary on preoperative sonographic examination, and the coiling of the right fallopian tube accompanying the paratubal cyst was misdiagnosed as torsion of the right ovary. We report this rare case with a brief literature review.
Abdomen, Acute* ; Abdominal Pain ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP)* ; Fallopian Tubes* ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ligaments* ; Myoma ; Ovary ; Parovarian Cyst* ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Adult ; Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics ; Bone Marrow/pathology ; Calreticulin/genetics ; Erythropoietin/blood ; Female ; Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl/*genetics ; Hematocrit ; Hemoglobins/analysis ; Humans ; Janus Kinase 2/genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mutation ; Myeloproliferative Disorders/*diagnosis/genetics ; Polycythemia Vera/*diagnosis/genetics ; Receptors, Thrombopoietin/genetics ; Thrombocythemia, Essential/diagnosis ; World Health Organization

PURPOSE: This study aims to review the appropriateness of the issued death certificates and autopsy reports and to evaluate the improvement points of these documents in accordance with the guidelines of the Korean Medical Association and the National Statistical Office. Moreover, this study also examines why the guideline is necessary for the credibility of these documents. METHODS: The death certificates and autopsy reports written by a training hospital were analyzed for a 12-month period, between December 2014 and November 2015. The reference to analysis was the “guidelines to medical certificate 2015” written by the Korean Medical Association, “World Health Organization (WHO) death certificate principle”, and “guideline leaflet,” as provided by the National Statistical Office. Two researchers analyzed the documents that were against the guidelines, and suggested improvement points. The analyzed variables were age, sex, issued date, direct cause of death, manner of death, location of death, and types of accident. The primary goal was to see the rate of issued documents written correctly according to the guidelines and to suggest possible improvement points. The secondary goal was to analyze the reason for accordance and discordance between researchers. RESULTS: There were a total of 603 death certificates and autopsy reports issued during the research period; 562 (93.2%) and 41 (6.8%) cases, respectively. As for the manner of death, 521 cases were “death from disease,” 64 were “external causes,” and 18 were “others or unknown” (86.4%, 10.6%, and 3.0%, respectively). As for the issued department, internal medicine and emergency medicine issued 301 (49.9%) and 126 (20.9%) documents, respectively. Of these, 139 (23.1%) cases were regarded to be in accordance with the guidelines, while 304 (50.4%) were considered to be discordant cases. Among the discordant cases, there were 177 (29.4%) cases that were the mode of death directly written to cause of death. As for the records of “period of occurrence to death” were recorded only 70 (11.7%) cases (including “unknown” 65 cases) and the others were blank. The Kappa number of analysis regarding the evaluation correspondence of the two researchers was 0.44 (95% confidence interval, 0.38 to 0.51). CONCLUSION: The most frequent error was ‘the condition of death to direct cause of death’ with the ratio of 29.4%. This may have been because the rate of concordance between the researchers based on the guidelines was not high enough. There is a need to provide specific guidelines for each case, and also promote and educate regarding significant errors.
Autopsy ; Cause of Death ; Death Certificates* ; Emergency Medicine ; Internal Medicine ; Medical Errors ; Observational Study*

This study examined the effects of corn gluten (CG) and its hydrolysate consumptions on weight reduction in rats fed a high-fat diet. Eight-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=40) were fed a high-fat diet (40% calorie as fat) for 4 weeks. They were then randomly divided into four groups and fed the isocaloric diets with different protein sources for 8 weeks. The protein sources were casein (control group), intact CG (CG group), CG hydrolysate A (CGHA group, 30% of protein as peptides and 70% as free amino acids) and CG hydrolysate P (CGHP group, 93% of protein as peptides and 7% as free amino acids). Body weight gain, adipose tissue weights, nitrogen balance, absorptions of energy, protein and fat, lipid profiles in plasma, liver and feces and hepatic activities of carnitine palmitoyl transferase (CPT), fatty acid synthase (FAS), malic enzyme (ME) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) were assessed. The CGHA diet had the highest amount of BCAAs, especially leucine, and most of them existed as free amino acid forms. The CGHA group showed significant weight reduction and negative nitrogen balance. Protein absorption and apparent protein digestibility in the CGHA group were significantly lower than those in other groups. Adipose tissue weights were the lowest in the CGHA group. Activity of CPT tended to be higher in the CGHA group than in other groups and those of FAS, ME and G6PDH were significantly lower in the CGHA group than in other groups. In conclusion, the CGHA diet which had relatively high amounts of free amino acids and BCAAs, especially leucine, had a weight reduction effect by lowering adipose tissue weight and the activities of FAS, ME and G6PDH in experimental animals, but it seemed to be a negative result induced by lowering protein absorption, increasing urinary nitrogen excretion and protein catabolism.
Absorption ; Adipose Tissue ; Amino Acids ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Carnitine ; Caseins ; Diet ; Diet, High-Fat ; Fatty Acid Synthetase Complex ; Feces ; Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase ; Glutens ; Humans ; Leucine ; Liver ; Male ; Nitrogen ; Peptides ; Plasma ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Staphylococcal Protein A ; Transferases ; Weight Loss ; Weights and Measures ; Zea mays

Pain-related impairment assessment by the fifth edition of the American Medical Association Guides had many ambiguous points, and therefore, it was not applicable directly in Korea. Several disputable pain disorders were excluded from the list of impairment evaluation, and complex regional pain syndrome was chosen as the first object of impairment evaluation. Scales such as Korean version of modified Barthel index for assessing the activity of daily livings and Beck Depression Inventory for assessing depression were added, and pain severity, pain treatment, pain behavior, etc. were scored. In order to objectify as much as possible and to remove the room for misuse, we develop a new rating system based on the concept of total score.
*Disability Evaluation ; Humans ; Korea ; *Pain Measurement ; Program Development ; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/classification/physiopathology ; Sickness Impact Profile

raumatic shoulder dislocations are one of the most common major dislocations in the general population. Injury to major vessels is rarely reported as a complication of shoulder dislocations. This case report presents the traumatic dissection of the axillary artery after a simple shoulder dislocation that was managed successfully with the placement of a self-expanding stent. With the clinical manifestations of a brachial plexus injury and progressive vascular compromise in the affected arm, a major vascular injury was detected on an angiogram, and a self-expanding stent was deployed. Through immediate diagnosis and prompt intervention, serious complications, such as hypovolemic shock and even death, were averted, ultimately achieving a favorable patient outcome.