PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore how prevalent the community-related methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) was in children with muscular-skeletal infections. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients of 18 years or under who were diagnosed with suppurative arthritis or osteomyelitis and S. aureus from September 2000 through August 2012 at the CHA Bundang Medical center. RESULTS: Thirty-one cases of suppurative arthritis or osteomyelitis were identified. The patients were between 17 days old and 18 years old with an average age of 7. Eleven cases (33.5%) of suppurative arthritis and 16 cases (51.6%) of osteomyelitis were observed. Five cases were accompanied by the two diseases. Methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) was isolated in 25 cases (80.6%) and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was isolated in 6 cases (19.4%). Multidrug resistant strains were not observed. MRSA was not found from 2000 through 2005. All patients were treated with antibiotics and the duration of antibiotics treatment was 26.4+/-12.7 days. Vancomycin was used as the initial antibiotic treatment in 4 cases (12.9%) and vancomycin was used as the definitive antibiotics in the 10 cases (32.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The result of this study showed that methicillin resistance rate of S. aureus from muscular-skeletal infections was concentrated in the latter half of the 12 year period.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Arthritis, Infectious ; Child ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Methicillin ; Methicillin Resistance ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Osteomyelitis ; Retrospective Studies ; Vancomycin

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical manifestations and antibiotic resistance of salmonellosis in children. METHODS: We reviewed medical records and investigated the clinical characteristics of culture-proven childhood salmonellosis from January 2000 through December 2011 at the CHA Bundang Medical center. RESULTS: We assessed 53 patients. The median age was 3-years-old (minimum 12 days, maximum 18-years-old) and the number of male patients was 33 (62.3%). It occurred most frequently in the summer (39%) and in 2001 (11 cases) however there was no case in 2009 and 2010. Salmonella typhi was isolated in 3 cases with septicemia. Antibiotic resistance to ampicillin was most frequently presented (30.2%) and 63.6% in serogroup B. No antibiotics resistance strains were cultured in patients with positive Salmonella typhi. Admitted patients from 2000 to 2011 were divided into 2 groups; group 1 from 2000 to 2005 and group 2 from 2006 to 2011. 40 cases belonged to group 1 and 13 cases were in the group 2. Group 2 showed more resistance to ampicillin than group 1 but without any statistical significance(25% vs. 38.5%, P=0.349). In group 1, the most common serotype was group D and in group 2, the most common serotype were group C and D. CONCLUSION: Salmonellosis in children was frequently occurred from 2000 to 2003 but decreased after 2004. There was no difference in clinical manifestations, serotypes and antibiotic resistances between the years.
Ampicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Child ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Salmonella Infections ; Salmonella typhi ; Sepsis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: As mitral stenosis worsens, the cardiac output can be reduced, with a compensatory increase in the sympathetic nervous activity. An accelerated sympathetic nervous activity is responsible for various pathophysiological changes, including atrial thrombus formation, pulmonary congestion and myocardial ischemia. In this study, the sympathetic nervous activity was evaluated in patients with rheumatic mitral valvular stenosis, both before and after a percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMV). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A PMV was successfully performed in 19 patients with mitral stenosis. The hemodynamic data were obtained by Swan-Ganz catheterization, and the variability in the heart rate evaluated by time domain measure via 24-hour ECG monitoring. An exercise test was performed according to Chung's exercise protocol, with the plasma norepinephrine level obtained before, during and after exercise. RESULTS: After the PMV, the right ventricle systolic, mean pulmonary arterial, pulmonary capillary wedge and left atrial pressures were significantly decreased. However, there were no significant changes in the right atrial, right ventricle end-diastolic and left ventricle end-diastolic pressures. After the PMV, the plasma norepinephrine level, an indicator of the sympathetic activity, was significantly decreased. On the other hand, the variability in heart rate, indicator of parasympathetic activity, was significantly decreased. CONCLUSION: In patients with mitral valvular stenosis, the sympathetic activity is accelerated, while the parasympathetic activity is decreased. This situation can be immediately reversed after a successful PMV.
Atrial Pressure ; Balloon Valvuloplasty* ; Capillaries ; Cardiac Output ; Catheterization, Swan-Ganz ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Electrocardiography ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Exercise Test ; Hand ; Heart Rate ; Heart Ventricles ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Mitral Valve Stenosis* ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Norepinephrine ; Plasma ; Sympathetic Nervous System ; Thrombosis

No abstract available.
Phototherapy*

Although posterior segmental fixation technique is becoming increasingly popular, surgical treatment of craniovertebral junctional disorders is still challenging because of its complex anatomy and surrounding critical neurovascular structures. Basilar invagination is major pathology of craniovertebral junction that has been a subject of clinical interest because of its various clinical presentations and difficulty of treatment. Most authors recommend a posterior occipitocervical fixation following transoral decompression or posterior decompression and occipitocervical fixation. However, both surgical modalities inadvertently sacrifice C0-1 and C1-2 joint motion. We report two cases of basilar invagination reduced by the vertical distraction between C1-2 facet joint. We reduced the C1-2 joint in an anatomical position and fused the joint with iliac bone graft and C1-2 segmental fixation using the polyaxial screws and rods C-1 lateral mass and the C-2 pedicle.
Decompression ; Joints ; Transplants ; Zygapophyseal Joint

OBJECTIVE: To compare the morphometry of subaxial cervical spine between cerebral palsy (CP) and normal control.METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 72 patients with CP, as well as 72 patients from normal population. The two groups were matched for age, sex, and body mass index. Pedicle, lateral mass (LM), and vertebral foramen were evaluated using computed tomography (CT) imaging. Pedicle diameter, LM height, thickness, width and vertebral foramen asymmetry (VFA) were measured and compared between the two groups. Cervical dynamic motion, disc and facet joint degeneration were investigated. Additionally, we compared the morphology of LM between convex side and concave side with cervical scoliotic CP patients.RESULTS: LM height was smaller in CP group. LM thickness and width were larger in CP group at mid-cervical level. In 40 CP patients with cervical scoliosis, there were no height and width differences between convex and concave side. Pedicle outer diameter was not statistically different between two groups. Pedicle inner diameter was significantly smaller in CP group. Pedicle sclerosis was more frequent in CP patients. VFA was larger in CP group at C3, C4, and C5. Disc/facet degeneration grade was higher in the CP group. Cervical motion of CP group was smaller than those of the control group.CONCLUSION: LM morphology of CP patients was different from normal population. Sclerotic pedicles and vertebral foramen asymmetry were more commonly identified in CP patients. CP patients were more likely to demonstrate progressive disc/facet degeneration. This data may provide useful information on cervical posterior instrumentation in CP patients.
Body Mass Index ; Cerebral Palsy ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sclerosis ; Scoliosis ; Spine ; Zygapophyseal Joint

Disorder of optic nerve blood perfusion has been thought to be one of risk factors for galucoma, and smoking has been suggested to affect optic nerve blood flow. Recently the scanning laser Doppler flowmetry (SLDF) was introduced and Heidelberg Retina flowmeter (RF), a kind of SLDF was reported to be useful to measure the capillary blood flow of optic nerve head and retina. The purpose of this study was to evaluated the variability of measurements in the optic nerve head and preipapillry retinal blood flow using HRF and to investigate the effect of smoking on optic nerve head and peripapillary retinal blood flow using HRF. Five eyes of five young healthy volunteers were enrolled to evaluate variability. Five scans were obtained in each eye. The mean coefficient of variation except disc cupping area was 19%. Baseline measurements of blood pressure, pule rate and perfusion image using HRF were obtained in 10 eyes of 10 healthy habitual smokers and then asked to smoke a cigarette. Measurements were then repeated 10 minutes and 1 hours after smoking. A significant increased in heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure was demonstrated 10 minutes after smoking. The blood flow parameters Volume, Flow, Velocity of optic nerve head and peripapillary retina were reduced 10 minutes after smoking, but no significance was demonstrated. This study shows that the effect of smoking is not significant on blood flow of optic nerve head and peripapillary retina. This result may be caused from the authoregulation of optic nerve head of young subjects of third and fourth decades. To investigate the effect of autoregluation on smoking, further evaluation on subjects with different autoregulation such as glaucoma patients will be needed.
Blood Pressure ; Capillaries ; Flowmeters ; Glaucoma ; Healthy Volunteers ; Heart Rate ; Homeostasis ; Humans ; Laser-Doppler Flowmetry ; Optic Disk* ; Optic Nerve* ; Perfusion ; Retina ; Retinaldehyde ; Risk Factors ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products

Preoxygenation is a standard anesthetic technique which prevents significant hypoxemia during the induction of anesthesia. Complete oxygenation is especially important in clinical situations of difficult intubation or in patients with decreased FRC, and in siturations where oxygen saturation is critical. During the induction of anesthesia in children, airway obstruction and apnea are associated with rapid development of hypoxemia. The decreasing speed of oxyhemoglobin saturation was faster in smaller infants than bigger infants. The most important factor determining the speed with which hypoxemia develops in healthy children is probably the oxygen reserve contained in the lungs and its relation to the oxygen consumption of the child. With deaeasing age, the arterial oxygen consumption increases and the ratio of FRC to body weight decreases. Due to the anatomical structure of an infant's upper airway, it is more difficult to obtaine patient airway in infants than in children. During repeated atttempts to intubate the trachea or while waiting for recovery from laryngeal spasms hypoxia can occur easily resulting in visible cyanosis in infants. This study was carried out to measure the time permissible for apnea before occurance of hypoxia following full oxygenation. The subjects consisted of 6 randomly selected infants 1-2 month of age, 4.6+/-0.6 Kg of body weight with no abnormalities of cardiorespiratory functions. After the intramuscular injection of atropine, patients were anesthetized through mask using oxygen and halothane. SpO2 and pulse rates were recorded throughout the study. After the patients were intubated, a plug was placed on the distal end of the tube to induce obstructive apnea. As soon as SpO2 decreased to just below 90%, the patients were ventilated again. In 2 of the infants, the time required to obtaine 90% saturation was 60 seconds. Within less than 70 seconds, four out of 6 infants had SpO2 below 90% and SpO2 below 80% were noticed in 3 cases. After the reestablishment of ventilation, SpO2 returned to the preapneic value within 10 second in all subjects. There was no evidence of increasing pulse rate as SpO2 levels decreased. However, pulse rate decreased in all subjects thoughout the study. In summary, maximum time permissible for apnea in neonate and young infant is approximately one minute. Furthermore, tachycardia should not be used as a sign for the onset of hypoxia.
Airway Obstruction ; Anesthesia ; Anoxia ; Apnea* ; Atropine ; Body Weight ; Child ; Cyanosis ; Halothane ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Injections, Intramuscular ; Intubation ; Laryngismus ; Lung ; Masks ; Oxygen Consumption ; Oxygen* ; Oxyhemoglobins ; Tachycardia ; Trachea ; Ventilation

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the anatomical feasibility of 3.5 mm screw into the cervical spine in the pediatric population and to establish useful guidelines for their placement. METHODS: A total of 37 cervical spine computerized tomography scans (24 boys and 13 girls) were included in this study. All patients were younger than 10 years of age at the time of evaluation for the period of 2007-2011. RESULTS: For the C1 screw placement, entry point height (EPH) was the most restrictive factor (47.3% patients were larger than 3.5 mm). All C2 lamina had a height larger than 3.5 mm and 68.8% (51/74) of C2 lamina had a width thicker than 3.5 mm. For C2 pedicle width, 55.4% (41/74) of cases were larger than 3.5 mm, while 58.1% (43/74) of pedicle heights were larger than 3.5 mm. For pedicle width of subaxial spine, 75.7% (C3), 73% (C4), 82.4% (C5), 89.2% (C6), and 98.1% (C7, 1/54) were greater than 3.5 mm. Mean lamina width of subaxial cervical spine was 3.1 (C3), 2.7 (C4), 2.9 (C5), 3.8 (C6), and 4.0 mm (C7), respectively. Only 34.6% (127/370) of subaxial (C3-7) lamina thickness were greater than 3.5 mm. Mean length of lateral mass for the lateral mass screw placement was 9.28 (C3), 9.08 (C4), 8.81 (C5), 8.98 (C6), and 10.38 mm (C7). CONCLUSION: C1 lateral mass fixation could be limited by the morphometrics of lateral mass height. C2 trans-lamina approach is preferable to C2 pedicle screw fixation. In subaxial spines, pedicle screw placement was preferable to trans-lamina screw placement, except at C7.
Child* ; Humans ; Spine