BACKGROUND: Massive bleeding, inability to identify important landmarks and structures, and necessity for a blood transfusion have been the usual problems of hemangioma excision. OBJECTIVE: We introduce a CO2 laser excision technique as a surgical method for the treatment of hemangioma of the lips and demonstrate its benefits. METHODS: In 4 patients with nevus flammeus of hemiface and accompanying hemangioma of the lips, excision of the hemangioma was performed using a focused beam from a CO2 laser under local anesthesia. RESULTS: Excellent to good results were achieved with minimal blood losses in all patients. No or minimal post-operative pain and edema and no significant complications were observed. CONCLUSION:The CO2 laser excision technique is recommended since it renders less textural change, greater volume reduction, hemostasis and an overall good cosmetic outcome than defocused modes or conventional scalpel surgery.
Anesthesia, Local ; Blood Transfusion ; Edema ; Hemangioma* ; Hemorrhage ; Hemostasis ; Humans ; Lasers, Gas* ; Lip* ; Port-Wine Stain

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of oncology ward nurses toward cancer pain management and to find ways to improve the educational program for nurses. METHOD: A total of 209 nurses working at the oncology ward of three hospitals in Seoul and a Gyenggi Province. The survey instrument used was the 32-item scale for evaluating nurses knowledge and attitudes originally developed by McCaffery and Ferrell'(1990), that was by Kim'(1997). RESULTS: In terms of the nurses knowledge of pain management, the result showed that the nurses scored an average of 67.8 out of 100 for phamacokinetics of opioids, 84.8 for classification of analgesics, 60.1 for pain assessment, and 70.7 for drug administration. 18.2% of the nurses hesitate to inject the narcotic agent because of concerns regarding the drug's potential side effects. there was significant difference in the knowledge of pain management according to the general characteristics of pain in terms of the nurses age(p=.001), position (p=.016), years of experiences(p=.002), experience of cancer pain education(p=.001). CONCLUSION: The also showed that nurses working at cancer ward lack knowledge. It is important to provide intensive education to nurses about cancer pain management.
Analgesics ; Analgesics, Opioid ; Classification ; Education ; Pain Management* ; Pain Measurement ; Seoul

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of oncology ward nurses toward cancer pain management and to find ways to improve the educational program for nurses. METHOD: A total of 209 nurses working at the oncology ward of three hospitals in Seoul and a Gyenggi Province. The survey instrument used was the 32-item scale for evaluating nurses knowledge and attitudes originally developed by McCaffery and Ferrell'(1990), that was by Kim'(1997). RESULTS: In terms of the nurses knowledge of pain management, the result showed that the nurses scored an average of 67.8 out of 100 for phamacokinetics of opioids, 84.8 for classification of analgesics, 60.1 for pain assessment, and 70.7 for drug administration. 18.2% of the nurses hesitate to inject the narcotic agent because of concerns regarding the drug's potential side effects. there was significant difference in the knowledge of pain management according to the general characteristics of pain in terms of the nurses age(p=.001), position (p=.016), years of experiences(p=.002), experience of cancer pain education(p=.001). CONCLUSION: The also showed that nurses working at cancer ward lack knowledge. It is important to provide intensive education to nurses about cancer pain management.
Analgesics ; Analgesics, Opioid ; Classification ; Education ; Pain Management* ; Pain Measurement ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: Many molecular diagnostic methods have been developed to detect sexually transmitted infections (STI). The STDetect Chip (LabGenomics, Korea) which is a DNA microarray-based tool, newly developed for STI diagnosis in vitro, and the real-time PCR-based Anyplex STI-7 (Seegene, Korea) in clinical use were evaluated using ATCC DNA and clinical samples to determine the clinical usefulness of the STDetect Chip. METHODS: The two methods were compared for consistency, sensitivity, and specificity for 6 pathogens in 300 prospectively selected clinical samples. Analytical sensitivity for ATCC Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma hominis and Trichomonas vaginalis DNA and the effect of mixing bacterial DNA were studied. RESULTS: The consistency of the two methods for clinical samples was superior at more than 0.92 kappa value. The sensitivity and specificity of the STDetect Chip compared with Anyplex STI-7 were 90.5-98.8%, and 95.6-99.6%, respectively. With similar analytical performance for ATCC DNA, the STDetect Chip detected 10(-5) ng/µL of N. gonorrhoeae, 10(-4) ng/µL of C. trachomatis, 10(-6) ng/µL of M. hominis, and 10(-3) ng/µL of T. vaginalis. For the mixture of three bacterial DNAs, less sensitive detection level was observed for T. vaginalis. CONCLUSIONS: The STDetect Chip showed good agreement with the Anyplex STI-7 test and it is considered clinically useful for detecting sexually transmitted pathogens.
Chlamydia trachomatis ; Diagnosis* ; DNA* ; DNA, Bacterial ; In Vitro Techniques ; Mycoplasma hominis ; Neisseria gonorrhoeae ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Pathology, Molecular ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases* ; Trichomonas vaginalis

Acute interstitial pneumonia is a fulminant disease of unknown etiology that usually occurs in a previously healthy person and produces the histologic findings of the organizing phase of diffuse alveolar damage. We experienced an autopsy case of acute interstitial pneumonia of unknown etiology. The patient was a 48 year old man who had been healthy and had not been exposed to organic dusts or other toxic materials. The chief complaints represented were dyspnea and a dry cough for several weeks before hospitalization, and the chest radiographs showed bilateral interstitial infiltrates. Patchy consolidation of air space was also identified and ground-glass attenuation similar to those described in ARDS was detected on high-resolution computed tomography. Steroid pulse therapy, mechanical ventilation, and antibiotics for superimposed bacterial infection were performed, but the symptoms did not improve and the patient died of generalized respiratory insufficiency and severe hypoxemia 2 1/2 months after hospitalization. At autopsy the macroscopic and microscopic findings were confined mainly to the lungs. On the whole, both lungs were firm in consistency and the external surface showed a cobblestone appearance. The cut surface showed almost complete replacement of the normal lung parenchyma with gray to yellow fibrous tissue with a little residual functional area remaining. The pathology of both open lung biopsy and autopsy tissue showed marked hyperplasia of type II pneumocytes, hyaline membrane formation, thickening of the alveolar wall due to extensive fibroblast proliferation, and relatively abundant young collagen deposition in the interstitium. An immunohistochemical stain for cytokeratin revealed epithelial hyperplasia and showed that the alveolar spaces were markedly shrunken by fibrous tissue.
Anoxia ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Autopsy* ; Bacterial Infections ; Biopsy ; Collagen ; Cough ; Dust ; Dyspnea ; Fibroblasts ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Hyperplasia ; Keratins ; Lung ; Lung Diseases, Interstitial* ; Membranes ; Middle Aged ; Pathology ; Pneumocytes ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Respiration, Artificial ; Respiratory Insufficiency

In Korea medical record administrators/technicians are coding diagnoses and procedures of discharged patients based on their medical records mostly using International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision(ICD-9) and International Classification of Procedures(ICPM) by WHO. This study examined consistency of coding in 63 hospitals in the year of 1992. The statistical data showed great inconsistency in coding patterns among many hospitals. The main reasons of inconsistency were coders errors, ill-defined diagnoses/procedures, no unified route to make new code numbers for the new or ambiguous diagnoses/procedures, inconsistency of selection of using optional(additional) codes, and inconsistency of reference records on coding. Near half of the hospitals do not recheck the accuracy of coding after completion of medical records by physicians. Most of the coders review operation record, admission and discharge record, discharge summary, progress notes, pathology report, and consultation record as references on coding, but 14 hospitals do not review the whole record when they code diagnoses and procedures. Twenty-three hospitals discuss with physicians when they have questions in assigning code numbers. Further study should be done continuously for valid and reliable statistics of diseases and operations and for establishing a systematic unified channel for the new and ambiguous cases.
Classification ; Clinical Coding* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases* ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Pathology

The scientific interest in transfusion medicine as related to COVID19 can be summarized in three important points. 1) How can we identify asymptomatic COVID19 infected potential blood donors from healthy donors, and if the asymptomatic COVID19 infected person has donated blood and it has been transfused, how will it affect the transfused patient? 2) What affect will COVID19 have on blood establishments and medical institutions that use blood? 3) How will convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients be collected and then be used for patients in need of it? Since COVID19 has a negative effect on blood transfusion and blood management, well developed lines of communication and cooperation from blood establishments, medical institutions, government agencies, and people are urgently needed to overcome the impact of this negative effect.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the relationships among emotional labor, grit, and job satisfaction of pediatric nurses and factors affecting job satisfaction. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 137 pediatric nurses working in a general hospital in Seoul. Data were collected from January 1, 2022 to January 31. The data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN version 28.0.1.1. Results: The mean score of job satisfaction was 3.63±0.43 (out of 5), emotional labor was 3.70±0.39 (out of 5), and grit was 2.90±0.30 (out of 4). Job satisfaction had positively correlated with emotional labor (r=.27, p=.002) and grit (r=.65, p<.001). The regression analyses showed subcategories of grit had a significant influence on job satisfaction. The factors significantly affecting job satisfaction were persistence to achieve long-term goals (β=.39, p<.001), patient-oriented intrinsic motivation (β=.30, p<.001), and passion to become a nursing professional (β=.21, p=.004). Conclusion These results suggested a need to increase grit for improving the job satisfaction. Furthermore, it would be necessary to develop a diverse program to increase job satisfaction for pediatric nurses by improving grit.

Background: Maintaining optimal blood inventory levels in hospitals is important to prevent blood shortage and wastage. We aimed to provide an efficient blood inventory management strategy for hospital blood banks nation-wide by comparing the current use of 5-day issuable stock (IS) with Lim’s IS as a novel target IS. Methods: The average and CV of daily usage (DU) were calculated from information entered into Korea’s Blood Management System by 194 participating hospitals in 2019 and 2020. Using these data, Lim’s IS was calculated by determining the simulated annual average blood shortage day nearest to 1 for each blood group in each hospital. The 5-day IS (5IS) was estimated by multiplying the average DU in 2018 by five to count the shortage days in 2019. Results: The average DU (0.3–231.3 units) and corresponding CV (0.33–7.14) in the participating hospitals were inversely proportional (r = –0.699 to –0.695). The hypothetical averages of 5IS and Lim’s IS were 27.0 ± 41.2 and 24.7 ± 20.8, respectively (P = 0.006). The shortage days for 5IS and Lim’s IS were 8.9 ± 22.7 and 1.0 ± 1.9, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusions While 5IS was unacceptable for universal application, Lim’s IS remained near one shortage day and is considered more efficient than 5IS. Hospitals should implement indicators that consider DU and its variations. This is the first study to introduce Lim’s IS as an indicator of optimal blood inventory, and the data are expected to provide guidance for effective blood inventory management nationwide, particularly during blood shortages.

Hepatitis A can cause serious illness among adolescents and adults with low vaccination coverage. Even though hepatitis A vaccine is one of the strong candidates for Korean national immunization program, adolescents aged older than 12 yr would not benefit. Our purpose was to assess the willingness and analyze the correlates of Korean mothers for hepatitis A (HepA) vaccination to develop strategies for HepA vaccination. A national telephone survey on 800 mothers with children aged 7-18 yr was conducted with random-digit dialing method. Sixty-two percent and 92% of the mothers reported that they were willing to HepA vaccination at current cost and at half of the current cost, respectively. However, at current cost, only 79% wished to vaccinate their child in an epidemic and 32% wished to vaccinate promptly. Having two or more children, not having future plans to send the child overseas, and low family income were significantly associated with not willing to HepA vaccination. Low perception of the susceptibility for hepatitis A and perception of the current cost as barrier increased the odds of unwillingness to vaccination at current cost and to prompt vaccination. The mothers' willingness to HepA vaccination for the children aged 7-18 yr in Korea was not very high at current cost and associated socioeconomic status and health-belief. Targeted intervention or strategies are needed to increase the HepA vaccination rate among children in Korea.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Demography ; Female ; Health Status ; Health Surveys ; Hepatitis A/economics/*prevention & control ; Hepatitis A Vaccines/economics/*immunology ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mothers/psychology ; Republic of Korea ; Social Class ; *Vaccination