Low back pain and sciatica is one of the most frequent and troublesome problem in or thropedic field. There are many controversies about surgicsl procedure for the treatment of the patient with herniated nucleus pulposus. The advantages of anterior interbody fusion are through removal of remnsnt of the disc, restoration of disc height, correction of spinal alignment, preservation of posterior elements and neural component. The strut of ilisc bone was firmly impacted and patients could be mobilization earlier. It is well known that symptoms secondary to herniated nucleus pulposus can resolve after disc excision and anterior interbody fusion, but little has been written about regression of herniated nucleus pulposus. We analysed 20 cases in which serial C-T studies disclosed an unequivocal regression or complete disappearance of nucleus pulposus after anterior interbody fusion. The results were summerized as followings ; 1. Regression of herniated nucleus pulposus was average 2.65mm. 2. The clinical results were excellent in 20% of the patients, good in 60% and fair in 20% 3. The comparision are based on the finding at C-T, marked regression(>4mm), was in 19%, moderate regression(2~4mm) in 59% snd minimal regression(<2mm) in 22%. 4. The clinical results were correlated to amount of regression of herniated nucleus pulposus.
Humans ; Low Back Pain ; Sciatica

STUDY DESIGN: Lumbar disc degeneration and segmental instability of the lumbar spine are causes of low back pain. Disc degeneration causes specific changes of the intervertebral disc, and could affect anatomic variations of end plate and vetebral body. However, the exact relationship between degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc and segmental motion characteristics is not known. It is known that radial tears of the annulus fibrosus initiate or accompany degenerative process of nucleus pulposus and the motion segment. It is hypothesis of this study that the existence of radial tear in the annulus fibrosis affects 3 dimension motion characteristics of motion segment. For the purpose, the degree of intervertebral disc degeneration is newly classified by existence of radial tear. Then, the resulting biomechanical motions are investigated. OBJECTIVES: To investigate effects of disc degeneration by the classification on kinematic motions of the motion segment from human lumbar spine and to suggest a quantified method to determine spinal instability in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 60 spinal motion segments from human lumbar spine was used for this study. To measure 3 dimensioal motion of the motion segments, Vicon system(Oxford, England) with 3 cameras reflective markers and VAX station was used. 6 kinds of pure moments(flexion, extension, right and left axial rotation, and right and left lateral bending) were applied to the motion segments using dead weight for each loading step. At the end of test(maximum loading), motion segments were frozen for anatomical study. For making clear the degree of the degeneration of the disc, a new classification based on MRI results was used: Grade 1 is a normal young disc without tear; Grade 2 is a normal aging disc without radial tear; Grade 3 is a degenerative disc with radial tear; and Grade 4 is a severely degenerative disc with radial tear and other degeneration such as showing decreased disc height. RESULTS: The upper lumbar specimens with radial tears has increased flexion motions as compared to the normal group. Also, the right and left axial rotation in radial tear group increased as compared to the normal group. However, there were no statistical differences in other motions. For the lower lumbar specimens, there were no significant differences in measured motions in all directions between the normal and radial tear groups CONCLUSIONS: These results suggests that the segmental motions are affected by radial tear in the intervertebral disc. Thus, the radial tear in the annulus fibrosus of lumbar intervertebral disc could cause the instability of lumbar spine. Further research is required to determine the relationship between other structural changes and biomechanical characteristics, and future studies should include in vivo investigations to correlate these findings to patients'symptoms.
Aging ; Classification ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Spine

No abstract available.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Endoderm* ; Endodermal Sinus Tumor* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Knee Joint* ; Knee*

Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome is one of the very rare genetic diseases which primarily affects face, hands and feet. At first, Freeman and Sheldon described this syndrome as cranio-carpo-tarsal dystrophy in 1938 and later Burian, as "whistling face" syndrome in 1963. There were 60 cases of reports in the world up to now, and only one paper with 5 cases in a family was reported in Korea. The authors report 2 cases of Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome associated with bilateral inguinal hernias and undescended tests in a family, briefly review the literature and alert orthopaedic surgeons to this condition.
Cryptorchidism ; Foot ; Hand ; Hernia, Inguinal ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Surgeons

PURPOSE: To evaluate the factors affecting foveal threshold measured by blue on yellow perimetry in moderate to severe open angle glaucoma. METHODS: Fourteen eyes of 14 patients who were diagnosed as moderate to severe open angle glaucoma underwent macular threshold test of the Humphrey Field Analyzer using white and blue targets. The foveal threshold using white targets (white threshold) was more than or equal to 18 dB in all cases. The cases of foveal threshold using blue targets (blue threshold) less than or equal to 0 dB were defined as foveal sensitivity loss group (7 eyes) and those more than 0 dB as no foveal sensitivity loss group (7 eyes). Those of age, contrast sensitivity, visual acuity, refraction, mean deviation, pattern standard deviation, corrected pattern standard deviation, vertical and horizontal C/D ratio, foveal white threshold, intraocular pressure, any point within central 5degrees with sensitivity less than or equal to 0 dB in visual field test were statistically analyzed between the two groups. RESULTS: Foveal white threshold and any point within central 5degrees with sensitivity less than or equal to 0 dB in visual field test showed significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Foveal dysfunction represented as decrease in blue threshold is possibly related to the paracentral scotoma which means any point within central 5degrees with sensitivity less than or equal to 0 dB in moderate to severe open angle glaucoma. However, significant deficits in either visual acuity or white threshold were not presented.
Contrast Sensitivity ; Glaucoma, Open-Angle* ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Scotoma ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Field Tests*

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to deterrnine the efficacy of maternal corticosteroid therapy on the morbidity of premature infants between 26 and 31 weeks' gestation. METHOD: A total of 62 premature infants between 26 and 31 weeks gestation admitted to pediatric department of National Medical Center from Nov, 1990 to June 1996 were analyzed to evaluate the efficacy of prenatal corticosteroid therapy on the morbidity such as hyaline membrane disease, intreventricular hernorrhage, necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, neonatal death, days on ventilation and hospital days. RESULT: Among 62 women who delivered premature infants between 26 and 31 weeks, 22 received betamethasone before delivery and 40 did not. 1) The rate of hyaline membrane disease was less in the betamethasone group (41% vs. 70%, P<0.05). 2) The rate of intracranial hemorrhage was less in the betamethasone group (0 vs. 20%, P<0.05). 3) The days of ventilator care was less in the betamethasone group among survival cases (27+/-3.2 vs. 5.2+/-4.6, P<05). 4) Arnong 14 women who delivered at 26 to 28 weeks, 4 received betamethasone before delivery and 10 did not. The rate of neonatal death was less in the betamethasone group (o% vs. 80%, P<0.05). 5) Among 48 women who delivered at 29 to 31 weeks, 18 received betamethasone before delivery and 30 did not. The rate of hyaline membrane disease was less in the betamethasone group (39% vs. 73%, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Betamethasone appears to reduce hyaline membrane disease, intraven- tricular hemorrhage, neonatal death and the morbidity significantly in premature infants between 26 and 31 weeks' gestation.
Betamethasone ; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hyaline Membrane Disease ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Pregnancy ; Sepsis ; Ventilation ; Ventilators, Mechanical

No abstract available.
Humans ; Tuberculosis*

BACKGROUND: Alteration of a wide variety of cellular oncogerms have now been implieated in the causation of many human cancers. However, genetic studies have indicated that an abnormality of a single gene is usually insufficient to elicit the fug transformed phenotype and that two or more genetic leaions may be necessary for this to occur. OBJECT: The purpose of this study is to examine the possibity of oncogene interaction which might be involved in the pathogenesis of human skin tugois. METHODS: The expression of the epidermal growth factor rattor(EGFR), c-jun protein, c-fos protein and p53 protein was assessed in frozen and corresgoAhng paraffin-embedded sections of 37 separate skin lesions (6 actinic keratoses, 6 squamo is ell carcinomas and 25 basal cell carcinomas using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Substantial number of the p53 positive cases were negative for c-fos, in contrast to normal tissue, which was p53 negative and c-fos positive. The negative correlation between p53 and c-fos staining was statistically significant(P<0.005). CONCLUSION: Although p53 appeared to have lost its normal role of regulatory early S phase protein in some lesions, in others high levels of p53 were assocated with underexpression of c-fos, reflecting the diversity of c-fos oncogene and the possible down regulation of c-fos expression by high levels of p53 protein.
Carcinoma, Basal Cell ; Down-Regulation ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Keratosis, Actinic ; Oncogenes* ; Phenotype ; S Phase ; Skin*