A newly reported, variant form of venous thromboembolism (VTE), named as "eThrombosis", occurred in a patient who maintained a prolonged sitting position at a computer. The patient fortunately recovered from the disease through early diagnosis and treatment. Recently however, the author experienced a new case of a 24-year-old Korean man who died due to "eThrombosis" after playing an Internet computer game continuously for about 80 hours. Based on this case, the author would like to warn heavy computer users of the risk of "eThrombosis", as they might also be at risk. Sitting for a long time at the computer results in an immobility that is a new and large risk factor of life-threatening VTE.
Adult ; Computers ; Fatal Outcome ; Human ; Immobilization/*adverse effects ; Korea ; Male ; *Posture ; Pulmonary Embolism/*etiology ; Venous Thrombosis/*etiology ; Video Games/*adverse effects

The clinical treatment of joint contracture due to immobilization remains difficult. The pathological changes of muscle tissue caused by immobilization-induced joint contracture include disuse skeletal muscle atrophy and skeletal muscle tissue fibrosis. The proteolytic pathways involved in disuse muscle atrophy include the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent pathway, caspase system pathway, matrix metalloproteinase pathway, Ca-dependent pathway and autophagy-lysosomal pathway. The important biological processes involved in skeletal muscle fibrosis include intermuscular connective tissue thickening caused by transforming growth factor-β1 and an anaerobic environment within the skeletal muscle leading to the induction of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α. This article reviews the progress made in understanding the pathological processes involved in immobilization-induced muscle contracture and the currently available treatments. Understanding the mechanisms involved in immobilization-induced contracture of muscle tissue should facilitate the development of more effective treatment measures for the different mechanisms in the future.
Atrophy ; Autophagy ; Calcium ; metabolism ; Caspases ; metabolism ; Connective Tissue ; metabolism ; pathology ; Contracture ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; therapy ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Immobilization ; adverse effects ; Joints ; Lysosomes ; metabolism ; Matrix Metalloproteinases ; metabolism ; Muscle, Skeletal ; metabolism ; pathology ; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex ; metabolism ; Proteolysis ; Signal Transduction ; physiology ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism ; Ubiquitin ; metabolism