PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify menopausal symptoms and quality of life (QOL) according to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in rural menopausal women. METHODS: Menopausal symptoms and QOL were measured by questionnaires. A total of 50 participants in HRT group had received hormone replacement therapy for 12 weeks and another 50 who had not received hormone therapy were assigned to non-HRT group. RESULTS: Vasomotor symptom score of non-HRT group was significantly higher than that of HRT group (p=.013). There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in all menopausal symptoms except for vasomotor symptom. There were no significant differences between two groups in the total scores and sub-scores of QOL. Total scores and sub-scores of QOL were very low in both group. Menopausal symptoms were significantly negatively correlated with QOL. CONCLUSION: These results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between HRT group and non-HRT group in menopausal symptoms except for vasomotor symptom and QOL. Menopausal symptoms were moderate and QOL was very low in menopausal women. It is necessary to develop nursing interventions to improve menopausal symptoms and QOL in menopausal women.
Female ; Hormone Replacement Therapy ; Humans ; Menopause ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intrauterine insemination (IUI) success rate and to define the variables for predicting success. Methods: The secondary data analysis was used with data collected from infertile females who underwent IUI in Fertility and IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) clinics, who benefited from the ‘National Medical-aid Program for ART (assisted reproductive technology) in 2016’, in which the data of 34,920 IUI cases were retrospectively reviewed. The primary outcome measure was the clinical pregnancy rate in elderly and young infertile females. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, χ2 test and logistic regression. Results: The pregnancy rate was 12.1% (2,095 cases) in elderly infertile females and 15.6% in young infertile females (2,758 cases) (χ2 = 87.90, p < .001). Using the logistic regression analysis, clinical pregnancy was positively associated with the ovulatory factor (OR= 1.48, p< .001) and male factor (OR= 1.19, p< .05) in elderly infertile females. It was positively associated with the ovulatory factor (OR= 1.30, p= .001) and the peritoneal cavity factor (OR= 0.58, p< .05) in young infertile females. Conclusion Our results indicate that the pregnancy rate in young infertile females was higher than that in old infertile females, and the IUI is the effective option in pregnancies in all ages with infertility due to the ovulatory factor. Additionally, further studies are necessary to fully describe pregnancy experiences for all the infertile females.

Among the erythrocyte membrane defects, hereditary spherocytosis is the most common. The erythrocyte membrane defect results from a deficiency of spectrin, the most important structural protein in red cell. Hereditary spherocytosis often presents with hemolytic anemia, jaundice, moderate splenomegaly. Diagnosis is established by the presence of spherocytes in the peripheral blood, reticulocytosis, an increased osmotic fragility, and a negative Coombs test. In children, splenectomy is usually performed after age 6 years but can be done at a younger age if warranted by the severity of the anemia and the need for frequent transfusions. In the period December 1987 to Agust 1993, 9 patients with hereditrary spherocytosis underwent splenectomy and the following results were obtained. 1. Nine patients were comprised of five males and four females. 2. Five patients(55.6%) had been admitted to our hospital during age 6-10 years. 3. Four of the nine patients had autosomal dominant inheritance with variable expression. The other five patients had no known inheritance. 4. The diagnosis of the spherocytosis was based on the increased osmotic fragility and increased autohemolysis of the erythrocytes, as well as on the appearance of spherocytes in the peripheral blood smear. 5. In all cases splenectomy was performed. Two patients had concomitant gall stones and choledocholithiasis, respectively. One patient with concomitant gall stones underwent simultaneous cholecystectomy and splenectomy. The other patients associated with choledocholithiasis underwent splenectomy, cholecystectomy, choledocholithotomy, and T-tube drainage. 6. Complete hematologic recovery was obtained by the splenectomy in all cases. 7. Postoperative complication was not occurred.
Anemia ; Anemia, Hemolytic ; Child ; Cholecystectomy ; Choledocholithiasis ; Coombs Test ; Diagnosis ; Drainage ; Erythrocyte Membrane ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Gallstones ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Male ; Osmotic Fragility ; Postoperative Complications ; Reticulocytosis ; Spectrin ; Spherocytes ; Splenectomy* ; Splenomegaly ; Wills

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to identify research trends related to complementary and alternative therapy (CAT) in Korea. METHODS: Data were collected from 2000 to 2018 articles in Korean database (KISS, RISS and DBPIA). 295 semantic morphemes were extracted from 123 articles by network analysis program. Co-occurrence matrixes of the morphemes were generated by weighting Jaccard-coefficient and then we did network analysis and visualization. RESULTS: Common morphemes with high centralities were ‘Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)’, ‘CAT’, ‘Aged’, ‘Diet therapy’, ‘Herbal medicine’, ‘Acupuncture’, and ‘Oriental medicine’. Since 2000, studies on complementary and alternative therapies have been actively involved in biological and manipulative therapies, and it has been found that the main target of CAT is the elderly. CONCLUSION: Despite much attention of complementary alternative therapies, the scientific basis is insufficient. Through this study, we could find research trends in complementary alternative therapies and set the direction of future research. It is necessary to expand research on complementary replacement therapy for various diseases and age groups.
Aged ; Animals ; Cats ; Complementary Therapies ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Korea* ; Musculoskeletal Manipulations ; Semantics

Retroperitoneal schwannomas are rare tumors difficult to diagnose preoperatively. It may originate at the cranial nerves or nerves of the upper extremities, but origin along the nerves of the retroperitoneal space is very rare. Most of the retroperitoneal schwannomas are benign neoplasm. These tumor can be misdiagnosed as adnexal mass or carcinoma. Venous thromboembolism or pulmonary embolism is increasingly recognized as a common complication in patients with malignant disease. We report a 37-year-old woman presented with pulmonary thromboembolism and a pelvic mass which was incidentally found and misdiagnosed as ovarian cancer. Histopathologic results of the extirpated mass turned out to be a benign schwannoma.
Adult ; Cranial Nerves ; Female ; Humans ; Neurilemmoma ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Retroperitoneal Space ; Thromboembolism ; Upper Extremity ; Venous Thromboembolism

Spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage from uterine leiomyomas is rarely encountered. The cause of hemorrhage is mainly trauma and torsion of myoma. Massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage from spontaneous rupture of a superficial uterine vein overlying a subserous myoma is extremely rare. A 48-year-old woman complained general weakness, lower abdominal discomfort and lower back pain. On admission to the hospital, hypovolemic shock, severe anemia and ascites were noticed. Ultrasonography and CT scan showed huge pelvic mass and much amount of fluid in the pelvic cavity. During emergent laparotomy, 3,500 mL of blood were drained from the abdominal cavity and a ruptured superficial vein was noted, located on the serosal surface of a fundal myoma. We report one case of massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage and hypovolemic shock due to spontaneous rupture of a superficial uterine vein overlying a subserous myoma.
Abdominal Cavity ; Anemia ; Ascites ; Female ; Hemoperitoneum ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Leiomyoma ; Low Back Pain ; Middle Aged ; Myoma ; Rupture ; Rupture, Spontaneous ; Shock ; Veins

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify, by immunohistochemistry, possible micrometastasis in the pelvic lymph nodes previously considered free by conventional histopathological examination, and to assess their influence on the survival of patients with cervical cancer. METHODS: This retrospective study included patients (n=51) operated on between February 2001 and May 2004 for cervical cancer without histopathologic lymph node involvement. Lymph nodes (n=282) from 51 patients with histologically node-negative cervical cancer were evaluated for micrometastasis. These were submitted to immunohistochemical study using AE1/AE3 anti-cytokeratin monoclonal antibodies to identify neoplastic epithelial cells. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 45.3 years (range, 27-72). Lymph node micrometastases were immunohistochemically detected in 3 of the 51 patients (5.9%), comprising 3 of 282 (1.1%) pelvic lymph nodes examined. One patient (Ib2) had adenocarcinoma and others (Ib1,Ib2), squamous cell carcinoma. All of them had negative lymph-vascular space invasion. In three patients, there were recurrences (66.7%, 2/3), and one patient (Ib1) died from the pelvic recurrence. CONCLUSION: We recommend an immunohistochemical examination for lymph node micrometastases in cervical cancer patients with histologically negative nodes. This immunohistochemical method can be employed successfully in the detection of neoplastic cells in lymph nodes previously considered free. Micrometastasis could provide important information for further treatment strategies and follow up. Its clinical significance in cervical cancer warrants further study.
Adenocarcinoma ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Epithelial Cells ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Keratins ; Lymph Nodes* ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis* ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: This study was designed to describe clinical differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic group in varicose vein. METHOD: We reviewed 59 cases of varicose vein managed in our hospital. The retrospective review of clinical records was done from March, 1999 to October, 1999. All patients were put into two groups:those were symptomatic and asymptomatic. RESULT: Analysis showed that varicose vein was more frequent in women than in men. 27.1% were asymptomatic and 72.9% were symptomatic. The mean age was 39.1 years in asymptomatic group and 52.1 years in symptomatic group. In asymptomatic group, the mean age of the male patients was 45.2 years and that of the female patients was 35.4 years. In symptomatic group, the mean age of the male patients was 49.6 years, that of the female patients was 54.2 years. The age difference between the two groups were 5.4 years in male in comparison with 19.8 years in female. In the symptomatic group, the frequency of association with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was 21% (male:28% vs female:8.3%). CONCLUSION: The varicose vein appears to be a gradually progressive disease. In female patients, aging factor may be more important for the development of symptom. DVT is one of major causes of development of symptom.
Aging ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Varicose Veins* ; Venous Thrombosis

Umbilical metastasis may be the first presenting sign of the disease, or an indication of a recurrence from a previous malignancy. We recently encountered a 19-year-old woman with advanced ovarian adenocarcinoma whose first sign was having a Sister Mary Joseph's nodule. This patient only presented an umbilical nodule with slight lower abdominal discomfort, without any other subjective symptom. The lesion was fresh red, firm, ulcerating and has 1.5 cm in diameter. A punch biopsy from the lesion revealed metastatic adenocarcinoma and a PET-CT scan showed hypermetabolism on the umbilicus. After a systemic evaluation, she had a laparotomy including right salpingo-oophorectomy, total omentectomy, pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy, appendectomy, and extirpation of the umbilicus. The patient received a postoperative combination of chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin, and still remains alive. This case demonstrates the importance of careful evaluation of any umbilical lesion and pathologic examination.
Adenocarcinoma ; Appendectomy ; Biopsy ; Carboplatin ; Female ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Lymph Node Excision ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paclitaxel ; Recurrence ; Siblings ; Sister Mary Joseph's Nodule ; Ulcer ; Umbilicus ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study introduces a safe, effective method for treating cornual pregnancy. METHODS: Between April 2005 and December 2008, seven patients with cornual pregnancy underwent hysteroscopic surgery at a minimally invasive surgery clinic. An 18F Foley catheter was inserted after dilating the cervix; then, the uterine cavity was irrigated with 300 mL of H2O2 solution to prevent excessive bleeding. The cornual gestation was removed by hysteroscopy without complications under ultrasonographic guidance. RESULTS: The serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin levels were monitored postoperatively and decreased optimally in all patients. All tissues removed from the uterus were confirmed to be gestational products. The estimated blood loss was less than 30 mL. All patients were discharged on the first or second postoperative day. CONCLUSION: Hysteroscopic removal of a cornual pregnancy with H2O2 is very practical and safe.
Catheters ; Chorionic Gonadotropin ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hysteroscopy ; Pregnancy ; Uterus