Congenital scoliosis is a disease characterized by its rigid and progressive curve. It is usually resistant to conservative treatment and early surgical fusion has been reommended. The indication for conservative treatment with brace is much limited but present mainly as a delaying tactic to maintain the spinal curvature until its growth is further advanced and it is more amenable for fusion. This paper was aimed to review our experience with 17 patients (18 curves) with congenital scoliosis who were treated with brace with average follow-up of 4.3years (at least 2 years) from Jan. 1968 to Dec. 1983 and the following results were obtained. 1. The interval from the time when scoliosis was observed to the time of brace application was less than 1 year in 10 patients (58.8%). 2. The average age was 6.6 years ranging from 0.2 years to 14.1 years. The average initial curve was 40.5 degrees. 3. The average final amount of correction was 3.6 degrees (8.7%). 4. The lumbosacral curve gave the best correction. The correction effect of brace treatment was less effective in the thoracic curves. 5. The correction was more effective in the patients younger than 10 years. 6. The shorter the curve, the more correction was obtained. 7. The type of failure of formation gave much more correction than the type of failure of segmentation. 8. The brace treatment was more effective in the patients whose curves were less than 50 degrees in younger age and with the anomaly of failure of formation. Bracing would delay spine fusion until more ideal time even in severe curves or anomalies of failure of segmentation. 9. Spine fusion should be done early regardless of age for progressive curves even with brace treament.
Braces ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Scoliosis ; Spinal Curvatures ; Spine

No abstract available.
Kidney Transplantation*

PURPOSE: Intrahepatic recurrent HCC has been classified according to location, the time to recurrence and the pattern of presentation. The purpose of this study is to classify intrahepatic recurrent HCCs into subgroups that have relatively similar recurrent patterns and to identify the risk factors for each recurrent type. METHODS: A total of 353 patients were retrospectively studied. Intrahepatic recurrent HCC was classified into nodular recurrence (<4 nodules; type I), multinodular-diffuse recurrence (> or =4 nodules; type II) and infiltrative recurrence (type III). The cut-off time between early and late recurrence was chosen to be 12 months following hepatectomy. RESULTS: Among the 134 patients with only intrahepatic recurrence, 94 were type I, 27 were type II and 13 were type III. The median survival time following the recurrence of types I, II and III were 55, 16 and 8 months, respectively. As determined by multivariate analysis, perioperative transfusion and indocyanine green retention at 15 minutes (ICG R 15 >10%) were the independent risk factors for type I; an ICG R 15>10%, microvessel invasion and intrahepatic metastasis were the independent risk factors for type II; an ICG R 15>10% and microscopic portal vein invasion were the independent risk factors for type III. Multivariate analysis revealed that the prognosis of patients with IHR was associated with the recurrent types, the time to recurrence and the serum albumin level at the initial presentation. Following multivariate analysis, an ICG R 15>10% and intrahepatic metastasis were the independent risk factors for early type I recurrence; perioperative transfusion and a higher grade of hepatitis activity were the independent risk factors for late type I recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The recurrent types and the time to recurrence may help us to predict the cellular origin of intrahepatic recurrent HCC and the prognosis of the patients who suffer with intrahepatic recurrent HCC.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Indocyanine Green ; Microvessels ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Portal Vein ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retention (Psychology) ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Serum Albumin