This is a clinical analysis and review of one-hundred ninety-four patients with periappendiceal abscesses who were treated at the Departmeat of Surgery, Masan Samsung Hospital over a ten year period from January 1985 to December 1994. The following results were obtained. The incidence of periappendiceal abscesses was 7.24% of the total cases of appendicitis operated on during the same period, and most of the patients(43.8%) were over fifty years old. The male to female ratio was 1:1.02. 41.2% of the patients had operations within four days after their symptoms occurred. On admission, the most common physical finding was tenderness on the right lower quadrant of the abdomen (92.9%) and leukocytosis(> OR = 10,000/mm3) was noted on CBC in 82% of the patients. Abdominal sonograms revealed periappendiceal abscesses in 88% of the patients, 83% were revealed with barium enema and 88% with abdominal CT scan. Many patients(75.5%) visited the local clinic and were treated under the diagnosis of gastritis or enteritis instead of appendicitis. One-hundred eighty-three patients(94.3%) had appendectomies with drainages(94.3%), two patients had drainages of abscesses without appendectomy, six patients had ileocecal resections and three patients had right hemicolectomies. Microbiologically, E. coli was the most frequently cultured species(63%) from abscess, and Klebsiella, Enterococcus and Proteus were isolated in some cases. Postoperative complication occurred in seventy-five patients(38.6%) and the most frequent complication was wound infection(28.8%). There was no mortality and the mean hospital stay was fifteen days.
Abdomen ; Abscess* ; Appendectomy ; Appendicitis ; Barium ; Diagnosis ; Enema ; Enteritis ; Enterococcus ; Female ; Gastritis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Klebsiella ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Mortality ; Postoperative Complications ; Proteus ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Wounds and Injuries

Bilateral fibroepithelial polyps of the ureter are scarcely seen benign mesodermal tumor that occurs most often at the proximal ureter. Most patients present with either hematuria due to necrosis at urethral polyp of flank pain secondary to partial ureteral obstruction. The Diagnosis may be established with intravenous pyelography, retrograde pyelography, ureteroscopy and CT. Local resection is the treatment of choice. We report a case of bilateral fibroepithelial polyps of the ureter with a brief review of literatures.
Diagnosis ; Flank Pain ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Mesoderm ; Necrosis ; Polyps* ; Ureter* ; Ureteral Obstruction ; Ureteroscopy ; Urography

Amiodarone is a widely used antiarrhythmic agent. Among its various adverse effects, amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity (APT) is the most life threatening complication, which has been described mostly in patients who have been in treatment with high accumulative doses for a long duration of time. However, amiodarone therapy in short-term duration induced APT was rarely reported. We describe a case of a 54-year-old man who is presented with symptoms of APT after a few days of therapy for post-myocardial infarction ventricular tachycardia. For early diagnosis and successful treatment, awareness and high suspicion of this rare type of early onset APT is crucial in patients with amiodarone therapy.
Amiodarone ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Drug Toxicity* ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Infarction ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Infarction ; Tachycardia, Ventricular

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a clinical syndrome characterized by chest pain, transient left ventricular dysfunction, and specific electrocardiographic changes induced by physical or emotional stress. We describe a rare case of this syndrome associated with acute mitral valve bacterial endocarditis in a young female.
Chest Pain ; Electrocardiography ; Endocarditis* ; Endocarditis, Bacterial ; Female* ; Humans ; Mitral Valve ; Stress, Psychological ; Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy* ; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left

PURPOSE: A multicenter study was performed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the results of chemotherapy in patients with testicular tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 121 patients with testicular tumor treated at five university hospital between 1980 and 1997. We analyzed the clinical characteristics, additional treatments after orchiectomy and results of chemotherapy. RESULTS: Patients age ranged from 1 month to 74 years with a mean of 24 years. The common presenting symptoms were scrotal swelling in 63 patients, palpable mass in 50, and testicular pain in 12. The location of the tumor was on the right side in 62, left in 58, and both in 1 with lymphoma. The histologic type was germinal neoplasm in 101 patients, nongerminal neoplasm in 1, and other tumors in 19. Clinically, 76 patients(62.8%) were stage I, 16(13.2%) stage IIa, 12(9.9%) stage IIb, 3(2.5%) stage IIc, 9(7.4%) stage III and 5(4.1%) stage IV. After orchiectomy, 73 patients(60.3%) were underwent close observation, 30(24.8%) chemotherapy, 14(11.6%) radiation therapy, 3(2.5%) radiation plus chemotherapy and 1(0.8%) retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. Among the 33 chemotherapy patients, 12(36.4%) patients achieved a clinical complete remission(CR), 5(15.2%) partial remission(PR), 4(12.1%) minor response and stabilization, 5(15.2%) progression and 7(21.2%) patients were follow-up loss, and the overall clinical response rate was 65.4%. Among the 18 chemotherapy patients with nonseminomatous germ cell tumor(NSGCT), 9(50.0%) patients achieved a clinical CR, 4(22.2%) PR, 1(5.6%) minor response and stabilization, 2(11.1%) progression and 2(11.1%) patients were follow-up loss, and the overall clinical response rate was 81.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study group was relatively small and insufficient to evaluate the chemotherapeutic results, but NSGCT seems to have a better clinical response to chemotherapy.
Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Germ Cells ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymphoma ; Orchiectomy ; Retrospective Studies ; Testis*

Although CAPD has become firmly established as an effective mode of renal replacement therapy, it's technique survival rate is much inferior compared to hemodialysis. To date, few patients have been maintained on this therapy for more than 10 years. To gain insights into clinical features of patients who had maintained over 10 years on CAPD in Korea, we retrospectively compared 23 patients who survived more than 10 years on PD(Long-term survivors, LTS) and 63 patients who died(Short-term survivors, STS-died, 41 patients) or changed to hemodialysis(STS-HD, 22 patients) within 4 years of initiating PD. For all patients, age, sex, diabetic history, prior cardiac events, body weight and biochemical profiles were analyzed. 1) The LTS were younger(39.7+/-12.4 vs. 47.7+/-12.3 vs. 60.9+/-13.8 years) compared with STS-HD and STS-died. 2) The LTS had less cases of DM(4.3% vs. 31.8 % vs, 61%), and had less cases of prior cardiac events(4.3% vs. 4.5% vs, 34.1%) compared with STS-HD and STS-died. Sex ratio and body weight were comparable in three groups. 3) At the initiation of PD, the LTS had higher serum creatinine(16.7mg/dL vs. 12.4mg/dL vs, 8.4mg/dL), albumin(3.53g/dL vs. 3.27g/dL vs, 3.20g/dL) levels compared with STS-HD and STS-died. 4) During 10 year CAPD treatment, LTS showed relatively stable body weight except the increase of body weight for the first 2 years in female. BUN, creatinine, protein, albumin constantly increased for the first 4 years, and then started to decline by 4 th to 6 th years. In conclusion, young age, non-diabetic history, less prior cardiac events and good nutritional status can predict the long-term survival on peritoneal dialysis. The evaluation of nutritional status and nutritional support by 4 th to 6 th years may be important in maintaining long-term survival in CAPD patients.
Body Weight ; Creatinine ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Nutritional Status ; Nutritional Support ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Replacement Therapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Ratio ; Survival Rate ; Survivors

PURPOSE: Whole-body CT is a very attractive diagnostic tool to clinicians, especially, in trauma. It is generally accepted that trauma patients who are not alert require whole-body CT. However, in alert trauma patients, the usefulness is questionable. METHODS: This study was a retrospective review of the medical records of 146 patients with blunt multiple trauma who underwent whole body CT scanning for a trauma workup from March 1, 2008 to February 28, 2009. We classified the patients into two groups by patients' mental status (alert group: 110 patients, not-alert group: 36 patients). In the alert group, we compared the patients' evidence of injury (present illness, physical examination, neurological examination) with the CT findings. RESULTS: One hundred forty six(146) patients underwent whole-body CT. The mean age was 44.6+/-18.9 years. One hundred four (104, 71.2%) were men, and the injury severity score was 14.0+/-10.38. In the not-alert group, the ratios of abnormal CT findings were relatively high: head 23/36(63.9%), neck 3/6(50.0%), chest 16/36(44.4%) and abdomen 9/36(25%). In the alert group, patients with no evidence of injury were rare (head 1, chest 6 and abdomen 2). Nine(9) patients did not need any intervention or surgery. CONCLUSION: Whole-body CT has various disadvantages, such as radiation, contrast induced nephropathy and high medical costs. In multiple trauma patients, if they are alert and have no evidence of injury, they rarely have abnormal CT findings, and mostly do not need invasive treatment. Therefore, we should be cautious in performing whole-body CT in alert multiple trauma patients.
Abdomen ; Head ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score ; Male ; Medical Records ; Multiple Trauma ; Neck ; Physical Examination ; Radiation Injuries ; Retrospective Studies ; Thorax