OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the rates of technical success, clinical success, and complications of fluoroscopy-guided lumbar cerebrospinal fluid drainage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of our hospital, and informed consent was waived. Ninety-six procedures on 60 consecutive patients performed July 2008 to December 2013 were evaluated. The patients were referred for the fluoroscopy-guided procedure due to failed attempts at a bedside approach, a history of lumbar surgery, difficulty cooperating, or obesity. Fluoroscopy-guided lumbar drainage procedures were performed in the lateral decubitus position with a midline puncture of L3/4 in the interspinous space. The catheter tip was positioned at the T12/L1 level, and the catheter was visualized on contrast agent-aided fluoroscopy. A standard angiography system with a rotatable C-arm was used. The definitions of technical success, clinical success, and complications were defined prior to the study. RESULTS: The technical and clinical success rates were 99.0% (95/96) and 89.6% (86/96), respectively. The mean hospital stay for an external lumbar drain was 4.84 days. Nine cases of minor complications and eight major complications were observed, including seven cases of meningitis, and one retained catheter requiring surgical removal. CONCLUSION: Fluoroscopy-guided external lumbar drainage is a technically reliable procedure in difficult patients with failed attempts at a bedside procedure, history of lumbar surgery, difficulties in cooperation, or obesity.
Adult ; Aged ; Catheters ; *Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Contrast Media ; Drainage/*methods ; Female ; Fluoroscopy/methods ; Humans ; Lumbosacral Region/*radiography/*surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Puncture/*methods ; Surgery, Computer-Assisted/methods

To elucidate the histologic pattern of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in Korea, liver biopsies from 173 chronic alcoholics with clinical liver diseases were classified according to the pathologic parameters. One hundred and seventeen cases, the sum of 91 of 116 serum HBsAg negative and 26 of 57 HBsAg positive patients, had the histologic evidence of ALD. Fatty change(23.9%), alcoholic fibrosis (AF)(23.1%) and cirrhosis (23.1%), comprised the three major ALDs, and only 8.5% of cases fit the criteria of alcoholic hepatitis. Chronic sclerosing hyaline disease (CSHD), chronic active alcoholic hepatitis (CAAH) and AF, where non-cirrhotic fibrosis is the predominant change, comprised 44.5% of ALD. Both features of ALD and HBV liver disease (HBV-LD) were found in 17 cases that included 8 AF and 7 cirrhosis. These 17 patients tended to consume less alcohol than patients with other types of pure ALD except alcoholic heaptitis. Patients with the serum HBsAg positive ALD (37.4years) were about 8 years younger than those with the serum HBsAg negative ALD (45.1years). More or less fatty change and foamy degeneration were seen in 77.4% and 31.6% of ALD respectively. Mallory bodies, megamitochondria, iron deposition and perihepatocellular fibrosis were found in 20.5%, 29.9%, 42.7% and 77.8%, respectively. These findings indicate that non-cirrhotic chronic ALD such as CSHD, CAAH and AF are the important histologic patterns of ALD in Korea, and that chronic alcohol consumption and HBV may act synergistically in developing liver disease.
Biopsy

No abstract available.
Drug Therapy* ; Humans ; Retreatment*

To cover soft tissue defect, various types of flaps have been used. Although lateral supramalleolar flap has been used as rotation flaps or reversed island flaps to cover defects around the foot and ankle, there has been no report about its application as a free flap. The lateral supramalleolar island flap has proves to be supplied constantly by the terminal branch of the peroneal arterys perforating branch. The free lateral supramalleolar flap has the same skin territory. Its vascular pedicle can be extended to the main peroneal artery and vena comitans, which can be obtained by dissecting the peroneal vessels between the distal tibia and fibula through the interosseous membrane. We have successfully transferred this free flap in eight patients from April 1994 to February 1995. All of the patients had full thickness skin defects which were caused by contact thermal burn, electrical burn, flame burn or traffic accident. There were no complications. From our experience, we feel that this new free flap have some advantages, induding vascular anatomy and long pedicle with large diameter and a relatively thin flap with minimal morbidity of donor site.
Accidents, Traffic ; Ankle ; Arteries ; Burns ; Fibula ; Foot ; Free Tissue Flaps* ; Humans ; Membranes ; Skin ; Surgical Flaps ; Tibia ; Tissue Donors

We studied the degenerative changes of acetabulum, examining the acetabular articular cartilage at weight bearing dome area from the hips of 25 avascular necrosis of femoral head cases. Histological- histochemical studies demonstrated 4 mild, 19 moderate and 2 severe grade of degenerative arthritic change. This has confirm that even in early stage of avascular necrosis of femoral head, there are degenerative arthritis in acetabular cartilage. This may influence the prognosis of bipolar hemiarthro- plasty in avascular necrosis of femoral head patient.
Acetabulum ; Cartilage ; Cartilage, Articular ; Head ; Hip ; Humans ; Necrosis ; Osteoarthritis ; Prognosis ; Weight-Bearing

This study is aimed to elucidate the biological nature of the precancerous lesions and to evaluate whether the ethanol alters 3'-Methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene (3'-Me-DAB) induced experimental hepatocarcinogenesis. A total of 108 Sprague-Dawley male rats were used for the experiment and divided into 6 groups according to 3'-Me-DAB and ethanol administration. Administration of the drugs were carried out daily by nasogastric tube insertion and the animals were sacrificed at different interval. A part of right lateral lobe was prepared for the histological examination. Cell kinetics of the immunohistochemical method for bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). The administration of 3'-Me-DAB induced oval cell proliferation, hyperplastic nodule, cholangiofibrosis and carcinoma in the liver. The mean labelling indices, the percentages of BrdU labelled cells, of hepatocytes were increased by administration of 3'-Me-DAB, only to reverse after cessation of the drug (2.58 vs 0.61). The labelling indices of the oval cells were also affected by the administration and cessation of 3'-Me-DAB (11.41 vs 4.48). In contrast, the cholangiofibrosis did not decrease but were still increasing following cessation of 3'-Me-DAB administration (4.37 vs 5.17 and 8.25 vs 11.29). These finding that the hyperplastic nodule and particularly the cholangiofibrosis have an autonomous proliferative potential and are definite precancerous lesions in the experimental hepatocarcinogenesis. Short term administration of ethanol decreased the incidence of development of the precancerous lesions, but did not affect the labelling indices in all the pathologic lesions of hepatocarcinogenesis.
Male ; Humans ; Rats ; Animals ; Incidence

In order to clarify the preneoplastic nature of large regenerative nodules without dysplastic change, we analysed the clonality of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and large nodules, diameter > or =0.5 cm, of cirrhotic liver by X-linked human androgen receptor (HUMARA) gene assay, using the principle of random X chromosome methylation and inactivation in female. Ten cases of HCC and 5 cases of large nodules without dysplasia from 9 female patients were selected. All the tumors, large nodules and paired normal control cells were selectively microdissected from deparaffinized hematoxylin and eosin stained slides. Genomic DNA was isolated and digested with HhaI. Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) amplication of the HUMARA locus was performed using 32P-a-dCTP containing PCR mixtures. The PCR amplified products were separated by gel electrophoresis and analysed by autoradiography. Nine HCCs from 8 patients were monoclonal and 1 case was polyclonal and the remaining 1 case was not polymorphic at the HUMARA locus. The HCC case which showed polyclonality contained many inflammatory cells. All the large nodules were polyclonal by HUMARA assay. These results suggest that all or most of the cells composing the large regenerative nodules without dysplasia are polyclonal. This assay may be informative for the differentiation between regenerative and preneoplastic nodules in cirrhotic liver and the size of nodule may be not important in hepatocarcinogenesis.
Autoradiography ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; DNA ; Electrophoresis ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Hematoxylin ; Humans ; Liver ; Methylation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Receptors, Androgen ; X Chromosome

The patient of lumbar disc herniation complains low back pain and sciatica. The intervertebral disc was degenerated by aging, the lifetime incidence of low back pain ranges from 80 to 90%, as determined by epidemiologic studies, whereas the incidence of sciatica is only 2~40%. This article was made with review of the natural history, clinical manifestations and physical examinations of lumbar disc herniation. In conclusion, a careful history and physical examination remain the key to accurate diagnosis of the cause of low back pain and/or sciatica, and very helpful adjuncts to make a diagnosis of lumbar disc herniations.
Aging ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intervertebral Disc ; Low Back Pain ; Natural History* ; Physical Examination ; Sciatica

Healing is an intricate, interdependent process that involves complex interactions between cells, the microcellular environment, biochemical mediators and extracellular matrix molecules. The goals of wound healing are to minimize bloods loss, to replace any defect with new tissue, and to restore an intact epithelial barrier as rapidly as possible. The rate of wound healing is limited by the available vascular supply and the rate of formation of new capillaries and matrix molecules, which are heavily influenced by locally-acting growth factors that affect proliferation, angiogenesis, chemotaxis, gene expression, proteinases, and protein production. We present a new method for wound control and treatment, the V.A.C (vacuum-assisted closure) technique. It places open-cell foam dressing into the wound cavity and applies subatmospheric pressure. The application of subatmospheric pressure accelerates the rate of wound healing by the foollowing two mechanisms: 1. Removal of excessive interstitial fluids, which decrease localized edema, reduce concentration of inhibitory factors, and increase local blood flow. 2. Transmission of mechanical forces to surrounding tissues with resultant deformation of the extracellular matrix and cells, which then increase protein and matrix synthesis as well as cell proliferation. We applied it to 17 patients: 1 Livedo vasculitis, 1 burned by flame 3 pressure sores, 1 extravasation injury, 1 wound infection, 2 wound disruption, and 8 diabetes mellitus feet. In the end, most of the remaining wounds were treated with a simple split-thickness skin graft and the results were encouraging. We concluded that the V.A.C technique may be an effective substitute to help promote wound healing. It could be especially helpful in chronic complicated wounds in aging or debilitated patients who can not tolerate aggressive surgical procedures.
Aging ; Bandages ; Burns ; Capillaries ; Cell Proliferation ; Chemotaxis ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Edema ; Extracellular Fluid ; Extracellular Matrix ; Foot ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Peptide Hydrolases ; Pressure Ulcer ; Skin ; Transplants ; Vasculitis ; Wound Healing* ; Wound Infection ; Wounds and Injuries*

A case of fibrolipomatous hamartoma of the median nerve in the palm and digits of the hand in a 14 year old man developed in the right hand is reported. This is rare disease characterized by fatty and fibrous tissue infiltration in themedian nerve of the palm and digits. This case was treated by limited debulking of the redundant tumor tissue and excision of the transverse carpal ligament. This case was performed with relief of the symptom.
Hamartoma ; Hand ; Ligaments ; Median Nerve ; Rare Diseases