Reinforced endotracheal tubes (ETTs) are designed to resist kinking or compression. However, these have a potential risk of being obstructed or severed by a patient's bite. We report a case in which a reinforced ETT was severed by tube-bite while the patient was in the prone position during an intensive care unit stay. Bronchoscopic evaluation showed that the severed distal part of the tube had lodged in the patient's right main bronchus, and it had to be surgically removed. The patency of reinforced ETTs should be carefully monitored in patients intubated in the prone position.
Airway Obstruction ; Bronchi* ; Bronchoscopy ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Intubation ; Patient Rights ; Prone Position

In this study, we analyzed the healthcare system of North Korea using Kleczkowski's model which categorizes national healthcare infrastructure into five components: health resources, organization, healthcare delivery system, economic support, and management. It was found that the healthcare system in North Korea, which provides clinical medicine, Koryo medicine and preventive medicine, is constituted of a physician system of independent geographic sectors and centralized delivery system while maintaining free universal health coverage. These systems are all managed by the government and the People's Committee Party. However, North Korea has been confronted with severe economic difficulties since the 1990s, such that we question whether the healthcare system has been able to function properly despite of the lack of resources in general throughout the country.
Clinical Medicine ; Collodion ; Delivery of Health Care ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Health Resources ; Preventive Medicine

Purpose: This study was performed to assess the clinical validity and accuracy of a deep learning-based automatic landmarking algorithm for cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Three-dimensional (3D) CBCT head measurements obtained through manual and automatic landmarking were compared. Materials and Methods: A total of 80 CBCT scans were divided into 3 groups: non-surgical (39 cases); surgical without hardware, namely surgical plates and mini-screws (9 cases); and surgical with hardware (32 cases). Each CBCT scan was analyzed to obtain 53 measurements, comprising 27 lengths, 21 angles, and 5 ratios, which weredetermined based on 65 landmarks identified using either a manual or a 3D automatic landmark detection method. Results: In comparing measurement values derived from manual and artificial intelligence landmarking, 6 items displayed significant differences: R U6CP-L U6CP, R L3CP-L L3CP, S-N, Or_R-R U3CP, L1L to Me-GoL, and GoR-Gn/S-N (P<0.05). Of the 3 groups, the surgical scans without hardware exhibited the lowest error, reflecting the smallest difference in measurements between human- and artificial intelligence-based landmarking. The timerequired to identify 65 landmarks was approximately 40-60 minutes per CBCT volume when done manually,compared to 10.9 seconds for the artificial intelligence method (PC specifications: GeForce 2080Ti, 64GB RAM, and an Intel i7 CPU at 3.6 GHz). Conclusion Measurements obtained with a deep learning-based CBCT automatic landmarking algorithm were similar in accuracy to values derived from manually determined points. By decreasing the time required to calculatethese measurements, the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment may be improved.

A 52-year-old man presented with a brown to black nodule on his left cheek. Histological examination revealed nests of nevus cells throughout the upper and mid-dermis. An eosinophilic oval-shaped bony structure was found within the nevus. We report here on a case of nevus of Nanta combined with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; Cheek ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Nevus

With the progress of image-guided localization, body immobilization system, and computerized delivery of intensity-modulated radiation delivery, it became possible to perform spine radiosurgery. The next question is how to translate the high technology treatment to the clinical application. Clinical trials have been performed to demonstrate the feasibility of spine radiosurgery and efficacy of the treatment in the setting of spine metastasis, leading to the randomized trials by a cooperative group. Radiosurgery has also demonstrated its efficacy to decompress the spinal cord compression in selected group of patients. The experience indicates that spine radiosurgery has a potential to change the clinical practice in the management of spine metastasis and spinal cord compression.
Humans ; Immobilization ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Radiosurgery* ; Spinal Cord Compression* ; Spine*

Reinforced endotracheal tubes (ETTs) are designed to resist kinking or compression. However, these have a potential risk of being obstructed or severed by a patient's bite. We report a case in which a reinforced ETT was severed by tube-bite while the patient was in the prone position during an intensive care unit stay. Bronchoscopic evaluation showed that the severed distal part of the tube had lodged in the patient's right main bronchus, and it had to be surgically removed. The patency of reinforced ETTs should be carefully monitored in patients intubated in the prone position.
Airway Obstruction ; Bronchi ; Bronchoscopy ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Intubation ; Patient Rights ; Prone Position

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects fertility and could be toxic to the ovary. Endometrioma per se and surgical interventions for endometrioma significantly reduce the ovarian reserve. Therefore, to prepare for surgical intervention for endometrioma, the high-risk group with decreased ovarian reserve must be considered. There is no evidence to support the use of surgical intervention before in vitro fertilization (IVF) to improve the reproductive outcomes of subsequent IVF in infertile women with advanced-stage endometriosis or endometrioma. As surgical treatment has few benefits, IVF could be recommended immediately for aiding conception in these women. However, the reproductive prognosis of IVF may be worse in the more advanced stages of endometriosis. When dysmenorrhea is severe or when cancer is suspected, surgery prior to IVF may be necessary and justified. When the size of the endometrioma is very large, surgery could be required prior to IVF to facilitate access to follicles during oocyte retrieval or to improve the ovarian response to controlled ovarian stimulation. Prolonged pituitary downregulation in women with surgically diagnosed endometriosis may be helpful to increase the clinical pregnancy rate in subsequent IVF cycles. The purpose of this paper was to review the efficiency and clinical application of the surgical intervention and IVF for infertile women with advanced-stage endometriosis or endometrioma.
Cystectomy ; Down-Regulation ; Dysmenorrhea ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Fertility ; Fertilization ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Humans ; Infertility ; Laparoscopy ; Oocyte Retrieval ; Ovarian Reserve ; Ovary ; Ovulation Induction ; Pregnancy Rate ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the association between immunoglobulin G (IgG) at birth and late-onset sepsis (LoS) in preterm infants. METHODS: Medical records of very-low-birth-weight infants, born at gestational age <28 weeks, between 2013 and 2016, were retrospectively reviewed. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the occurrence of LoS (LoS vs. non-LoS), and IgG levels at 1 day, and at 2 weeks and 4 weeks after birth were investigated. IgG levels, other perinatal factors, and clinical factors were compared in the two groups. The relationship between IgG levels and mortality among infants in the LoS group was also analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 105 infants were analyzed after exclusion of cases with early onset sepsis or death at < 72 hours of life. Gestational age in the LoS group was lower than in the non-LoS group (25.0±1.8 vs. 26.3±1.4 weeks, P=0.004). IgG levels at birth were similar between the two groups (236.4±96.4 vs. 282.0±104.7 mg/dL, P=0.078). Multivariate analysis showed that IgG at birth was not an independent risk factor for LoS. In the LoS group, IgG levels at birth were comparable between survivors and cases involving mortality. CONCLUSION: IgG levels at birth were not associated with the occurrence of LoS in extremely preterm infants.
Gestational Age ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Immunoglobulins* ; Infant* ; Infant, Extremely Premature ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight* ; Medical Records ; Mortality* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Parturition* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Sepsis* ; Survivors

BACKGROUND: The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV model has not yet been validated in Korea. The aim of this study was to compare the ability of the APACHE IV with those of APACHE II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) 3, and Korean SAPS 3 in predicting hospital mortality in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) population. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records for patients admitted to the SICU from March 2011 to February 2012 in a university hospital. Measurements of discrimination and calibration were performed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test, respectively. We calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR, actual mortality predicted mortality) for the four models. RESULTS: The study included 1,314 patients. The hospital mortality rate was 3.3%. The discriminative powers of all models were similar and very reliable. The AUCs were 0.80 for APACHE IV, 0.85 for APACHE II, 0.86 for SAPS 3, and 0.86 for Korean SAPS 3. Hosmer and Lemeshow C and H statistics showed poor calibration for all of the models (P < 0.05). The SMRs of APACHE IV, APACHE II, SAPS 3, and Korean SAPS 3 were 0.21, 0.11 0.23, 0.34, and 0.25, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The APACHE IV revealed good discrimination but poor calibration. The overall discrimination and calibration of APACHE IV were similar to those of APACHE II, SAPS 3, and Korean SAPS 3 in this study. A high level of customization is required to improve calibration in this study setting.
APACHE* ; Area Under Curve ; Calibration ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Electronic Health Records ; Hospital Mortality* ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Critical Care* ; Korea ; Mortality ; Physiology ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve

BACKGROUND: The impact of institutional case volume to graft failure rate after adult kidney transplantation is relatively unclear compared to other solid organ transplantations. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of 13,872 adult kidney transplantations in Korea was performed. Institutions were divided into low- (< 24 cases/year), medium- (24–60 cases/year), and high- (> 60 cases/year) volume centers depending on the annual case volume. One-year graft failure rate was defined as the proportion of patients who required dialysis or re-transplantation at one year after transplantation. Postoperative in-hospital mortality and long-term graft survival were also measured. RESULTS: After adjustment, one year graft failure was higher in low-volume centers significantly (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26–1.78; P < 0.001) and medium-volume centers (aOR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.57–2.23; P < 0.001) compared to high-volume centers. Low-volume centers had significantly higher mortality (aOR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.15–2.66; P = 0.01) than that of high-volume centers after adjustment. Long-term graft survival of up to 9 years was superior in high-volume centers compared to low- and medium-volume centers (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Higher-case volume centers were associated with lower one-year graft failure rate, lower in-hospital mortality, and higher long-term graft survival after kidney transplantation.
Adult ; Cohort Studies ; Dialysis ; Graft Survival ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; Kidney ; Korea ; Mortality ; Odds Ratio ; Organ Transplantation ; Retrospective Studies ; Transplants