PURPOSE: Infants at neonatal intensive care units (NICU) are invariably exposed to various procedural and environmental stimuli. The study was performed to compare the pain responses in three NICU stimulants and to examine the clinical feasibility for NICU infants using CRIES, FLACC and PIPP. METHOD: In a correlational study, a total of 94 NICU stimulants including angio-catheter insertions, trunk-rubbings and loud noises, was observed for pain responses among 64 infants using CRIES, FLACC and PIPP. RESULTS: A significant difference was identified among the mean scores in CRIES(F(2, 91)=47.847, p=.000), FLACC(F(2, 91)=41.249, p=.000) and PIPP(F(2, 91)=16.272, p=.000) to three stimulants. In a Post-hoc Scheff test, an angio-catheter insertion showed the highest scores in CRIES, FLACC and PIPP compared to the other two stimulations. A strong correlation was identified between CRIES and FLACC in all three stimulations(.817 < r < .945) while inconsistent findings were identified between PIPP and CRIES or FLACC. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study support that CRIES and FLACC are reliable and clinically suitable pain measurements for NICU infants. Further studies are needed in data collection time-point as well as clinical feasibility on PIPP administration to assess pain response in infants, including premature infants.
Pain Measurement/*methods ; Male ; *Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; *Infant, Newborn ; Infant Behavior ; Humans ; Female

PURPOSE: The study was conducted to investigate the skin hydration level in various body sites and identify the influencing factors in neonates. METHODS: An exploratory comparison study was designed to measure the stratum corneum hydration, using a National DM-R2 on the forehead, abdomen, buttocks, and the back of the hands and feet of 198 neonates including 92 premature infants. RESULTS: The results showed 32.7%-36.5% of stratum corneum hydration for all sites. Premature infants revealed a higher hydration level on the peripheral sites (dorsal hand and feet) than those of the full-term infants, possibly resulting from therapeutic regimens including an incubator or radiant warmer. Infants in an incubator showed a higher hydration level than those in radiant warmers, suggesting more attention to fluid management for infants in the open environment. In addition, all stratum corneum hydration measurements except one, from the forehead, showed a positive correlation with postnatal age in full-term infants while showing no relation to any measurements in premature infants. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated the very low skin hydration levels in hospitalized neonates, particularly in premature neonates with more susceptible skin hydration instability despite therapeutic interventions for fluid balance. More vigilant fluid management is imperative in neonates, particularly those in the open environment.
Body Water/*metabolism ; Demography ; Epidermis/*metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Incubators, Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Male ; Phototherapy/methods ; *Skin Physiological Phenomena ; Water Loss, Insensible

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the most rigorous study design for testing hypotheses and the gold standard for evaluating intervention effectiveness. However, RCTs are often conducted under the assumption of ideal conditions that may differ from real-world scenarios in which various issues, such as loss to follow-up, mistakes in participant enrollment or intervention, and low subject compliance or adherence, may occur. There are various group-defining strategies for analyzing RCT data, including the intention-to-treat (ITT), as-treated, and per-protocol (PP) approaches. The ITT principle involves analyzing all participants according to their initial group assignments, regardless of study completion and compliance or adherence to treatment protocols. This approach aims to replicate real-world clinical settings in which several anticipated or unexpected conditions may occur with regard to the study protocol. For the PP approach, only participants who meet the inclusion criteria, complete the interventions according to the study protocols, and have primary outcome data available are included. This approach aims to confirm treatment effects under optimal conditions. In general, the ITT principle is preferred for superiority and inequality trials, whereas the PP approach is preferred for equivalence and non-inferiority trials. However, both analytical approaches should be conducted and their results compared to determine whether significant differences exist. Overall, using both the ITT and PP approaches can provide a more complete picture of the treatment effects and ensure the reliability of the trial results.

Most diseases have more than two interventions or treatment methods, and the application of network meta-analysis (NMA) studies to compare and evaluate the superiority of each intervention or treatment method is increasing. Understanding the concepts and processes of systematic reviews and meta-analyses is essential to understanding NMA. As with systematic reviews and meta-analyses, NMA involves specifying the topic, searching for and selecting all related studies, and extracting data from the selected studies. To evaluate the effects of each treatment, NMA compares and analyzes three or more interventions or treatment methods using both direct and indirect evidence. There is a possibility of several biases when performing NMA. Therefore, key assumptions like similarity, transitivity, and consistency should be satisfied when performing NMA. Among these key assumptions, consistency can be evaluated and quantified by statistical tests. This review aims to introduce the concepts of NMA, analysis methods, and interpretation and presentation of the results of NMA. It also briefly introduces the emerging issues in NMA, including methods for evaluation of consistency.

Most diseases have more than two interventions or treatment methods, and the application of network meta-analysis (NMA) studies to compare and evaluate the superiority of each intervention or treatment method is increasing. Understanding the concepts and processes of systematic reviews and meta-analyses is essential to understanding NMA. As with systematic reviews and meta-analyses, NMA involves specifying the topic, searching for and selecting all related studies, and extracting data from the selected studies. To evaluate the effects of each treatment, NMA compares and analyzes three or more interventions or treatment methods using both direct and indirect evidence. There is a possibility of several biases when performing NMA. Therefore, key assumptions like similarity, transitivity, and consistency should be satisfied when performing NMA. Among these key assumptions, consistency can be evaluated and quantified by statistical tests. This review aims to introduce the concepts of NMA, analysis methods, and interpretation and presentation of the results of NMA. It also briefly introduces the emerging issues in NMA, including methods for evaluation of consistency.

Among the different providers of health care big data in Korea, the data provided by the National Health Insurance Database include the medical information of all the citizens who have subscribed to medical insurance. As such, the data have representativeness and completeness. In order to conduct research using these National Health Insurance Database data, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the claim data to avoid various biases, and to control confounding variables when making various operational definitions in the planning stage of the research. Moreover, without a proper understanding of the big data, it is possible during the analysis and data interpretation to mistakenly interpret the correlation between variables as a causal relationship. Therefore, in order to help advanced medical science, which reflects the medical reality such as medical expenses and number of hospital visits by clearly recognizing and analyzing the characteristics and limitations of health care big data, this author has dealt with the use of data sharing services provided by the National Health Insurance Database.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses present results by combining and analyzing data from different studies conducted on similar research topics. In recent years, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have been actively performed in various fields including anesthesiology. These research methods are powerful tools that can overcome the difficulties in performing large-scale randomized controlled trials. However, the inclusion of studies with any biases or improperly assessed quality of evidence in systematic reviews and meta-analyses could yield misleading results. Therefore, various guidelines have been suggested for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses to help standardize them and improve their quality. Nonetheless, accepting the conclusions of many studies without understanding the meta-analysis can be dangerous. Therefore, this article provides an easy introduction to clinicians on performing and understanding meta-analyses.
Anesthesiology ; Bias (Epidemiology)

No abstract available.
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*blood ; Diabetic Nephropathies/*blood ; Diabetic Retinopathy/*blood ; Hemoglobins/*metabolism ; Humans ; Male

The author names were mistakenly given as Richard Sungbok Lee in the original article. It should be corrected as Richard Leesungbok.

As dental implant treatment becomes popular for both partial and complete edentulous patients, old people with complex systemic diseases also tend to prefer implant-assisted-overdenture or implant-supported-fixed prostheses to conventional complete denture. In this case, 77-year-old female who was on medication for hypertension and osteoporosis and paralyzed on right side due to stroke visited for implant-assisted-overdenture on lower jaw. After oral and radiographic examination, root-assisted magnet overdenture on upper jaw and implant-assisted magnet overdenture on lower jaw are planned. Consequently, overdentures using self-adjusting magnetic attachment(SA) system on both jaws resulted in recovering satisfying function and retention, which is enable to insert and remove with only one hand.
Aged ; Dental Implants ; Denture, Complete ; Denture, Overlay* ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Jaw ; Osteoporosis ; Prostheses and Implants ; Rehabilitation* ; Stroke