PURPOSE: This study was performed to evaluate the efficiency of Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for acceleration of bone healing process on allograft transplantation after curettage in benign bone tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From December 2007 to February 2009, twenty-one patients who had benign bone tumor and underwent allograft transplantation after curettage were evaluated. Mean follow-up period was 14.6 months (range, 12-26 months). We compared with 13 cases of PRP group and 8 cases of non-PRP group in terms of size of lesion, bone resorption, amount of applied PRP and complications. The mean age at surgery was 23.6 years (range, 4-73 years). The most common diagnosis was simple bone cyst (7) followed by enchondroma (4), giant cell tumor (3), undifferentiated benign bone tumor (3) and so on. RESULTS: The mean size of lesion was 33.5 cm3 (range, 2.3-181.9 cm3) (29.4 cm3 in PRP group and 40.2 cm3 in non-PRP group). The mean volume of injected PRP was 7.4 cc (range, 3-12 cc). Bone union started at 3.0 months (range, 1.5-5.8 months) in PRP group and 5.3 months (range, 4-8 months) in non-PRP group. Three cases for each group were excluded due to recurrence and pathologic fracture. One patient had febrile episode 3 weeks later after surgery which subsided with antibiotics. CONCLUSION: The PRP could accelerate bone union in allograft transplantation after curettage of benign bone tumor. Furthermore, we expect that PRP can accelerate bone union in fracture or non-union.
Acceleration ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bone Cysts ; Bone Resorption ; Chondroma ; Curettage ; Follow-Up Studies ; Fractures, Spontaneous ; Giant Cell Tumors ; Humans ; Platelet-Rich Plasma ; Recurrence ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Transplants

The payment system such as national long term care insurance for the elderly and per diem rate for geriatric hospitals introduced in 2008 has greatly changed the Korean medical system for the elderly. Therefore, today it would be inevitable to discuss quality assessment of healthcare services provided by nursing facilities and geriatric hospitals in order to effectively establish and operate the introduced systems. Under these circumstances, in an effort to provide elderly people with high-quality medical services with limited resources, it is believed that the quality indicators need to include the following: (1) provision and management of medical services for major health problems; (2) assessment of quality of life for residents; (3) assessment of ADL and rehabilitation services so as to maintain and improve functions; (4) assessment of convenience of living facilities; and (5) assessment of rate of potential avoidable hospitalization in acute care hospitals. Moreover, along with an effort to define roles of nursing facilities and geriatric hospitals, it would be necessary to set up the feasible stepwise strategy through discussions with relevant institutions.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Insurance, Long-Term Care ; Quality Indicators, Health Care ; Quality of Life

BACKGROUND: Intrathecal (IT) neostigmine produces analgesia in animal and human. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IT neostigmine for post-cesarean section analgesia. METHODS: Forty-five women undergoing cesarean section under spinal anesthesia were randomly assigned into 3 groups to receive; normal saline 0.2 ml, or neostigmine 12.5 microgram, or neostigmine 25 microgram intrathecally with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine 12 mg. Degrees of sensory and motor blocks, maternal hemodynamic changes, and side effects were recorded. Apgar scores and umbilical vein blood gas analysis (UVBGA) were checked for evaluation of fetal status. Postoperative analgesia was provided by intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) using fentanyl 500 microgram and ketorolac 150 mg in 100 ml. Pain scores with 10-cm visual analogue scale (VAS), time to first PCA use, cumulative PCA consumptions, and side effects were assessed at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hr after IT injection. RESULTS: There were no significant differences among the three groups in characteristics of spinal anesthesia, maternal blood pressure and heart rate, Apgar scores, and UVBGA data. Compared to saline group, IT neostigmine significantly prolonged time to first PCA use and decreased 24 hr- and 48 hr-PCA consumptions (P<0.05). Pain scores in neostigmine groups were significantly lower than those in saline group for first 4 hr after which there were no differences among the three groups. There were significantly higher incidences of nausea and vomiting in neostigmine groups than in saline group. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that IT neostigmine can be an alternative postoperative analgesic without adverse fetal effects for cesarean section. However, high incidence of nausea and vomiting seem to limit its clinical usefulness. Further studies are necessary to enhance its analgesic effects and to decrease its adverse effects.
Analgesia* ; Analgesia, Patient-Controlled ; Anesthesia, Spinal ; Animals ; Blood Gas Analysis ; Blood Pressure ; Bupivacaine ; Cesarean Section ; Female ; Fentanyl ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ketorolac ; Nausea ; Neostigmine* ; Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis ; Pregnancy ; Umbilical Veins ; Vomiting

Purpose: To evaluate the risk factors and effects of fluctuations in oxygen saturation on the occurrence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: From January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2020, 260 patients hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of Ajou University Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Sixty-six patients (25%) were diagnosed with ROP; of them 39 required treatment. In the multivariate regression analysis of ROP severity, the odds ratio (OR) of gestational age was 0.32 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22 to 0.47; P<0.0001). The OR of saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2) fluctuations at the 4th week after birth was 1.02 (95% CI, 1.02 to 1.12; P=0.041). Conclusion SpO2 fluctuations in premature infants younger than 30 weeks’ gestational age affects ROP severity, especially at the 4th week of life.

Purpose: To evaluate the risk factors and effects of fluctuations in oxygen saturation on the occurrence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: From January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2020, 260 patients hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of Ajou University Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Sixty-six patients (25%) were diagnosed with ROP; of them 39 required treatment. In the multivariate regression analysis of ROP severity, the odds ratio (OR) of gestational age was 0.32 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22 to 0.47; P<0.0001). The OR of saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2) fluctuations at the 4th week after birth was 1.02 (95% CI, 1.02 to 1.12; P=0.041). Conclusion SpO2 fluctuations in premature infants younger than 30 weeks’ gestational age affects ROP severity, especially at the 4th week of life.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Floors and Floorcoverings ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Male ; Mandible ; Mouth ; Neck Dissection ; Surgical Flaps

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate value of diagnostic tool for vocal cord palsy utilizing artificial intelligence without laryngoscopeMaterials and Method A dataset consisting of recordings from patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis (n=54) as well as normal individuals (n=163). The dataset included prolonged pronunciations of the vowels /ah/, /u/, /i/, and vocal cord data from paralyzed patients. Various acoustic parameters such as Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, and fundamental frequency statistics were analyzed. The classification of vocal cord paralysis encompassed paralysis status, paralysis degree, and paralysis location. The deep learning model employed the leave-one-out method, and the feature set with the highest performance was selected using the following methods. Results: Vocal Cord Paralysis Classifier: The classifier accurately distinguished normal voice from vocal cord paralysis, achieving an accuracy and F1 score of 1.0. Paralysis Location Classifier: The classifier accurately differentiated between median and paramedian vocal cord paralysis, achieving an accuracy and micro F1 score of 1.0. Breathiness Degree Classifier: The classifier achieved an accuracy of 0.795 and a mean absolute error of 0.2857 in distinguishing different degrees of breathiness. Conclusion Although the small sample size raises concerns of potential overfitting, this preliminary study highlights distinctive acoustic features in cases of unilateral vocal fold paralysis compared to those of normal individuals. These findings suggest the feasibility of determining the presence, degree, and location of paralysis through the utilization of acoustic parameters. Further research is warranted to validate and expand upon these results.

PURPOSE: Effective chest compressions may improve the return of spontaneous circulation and positive neurologic outcomes in cardiac arrest victims. Out of concern for rescuer fatigue, guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) recommend that the individual applying chest compressions should be switched every 2 minutes, but there is little evidence to support this recommendation. In this study, we investigated whether or not changing the individual who is applying chest compressions every 2 minutes during cardiopulmonary resuscitation is appropriate or not. METHODS: We recruited health personnel working at one university hospital on a volunteer basis. On a randomly assigned day, we compared the effectiveness of the use of multiple rescuers following the 2 minute guideline, versus single rescuer (rescuer-limited) in performance of CPR. The resulting data was collected by use of CPR recording technology, and chest compression quality variables including compression rate, compression depth, proportion of adequate compression depth, and proportion of incomplete recoil were recorded. RESULTS: There were statistically significant improvements in the rescuer-limited trial outcome including average compression depth (p=0.013), proportion of adequate compression depth (p=0.027), and difference in reported fatigue (0.007). CONCLUSION: In this study, we found that a rescuer-limited method is more effective than the multiple rescuer method in terms of subjective fatigue and chest compression quality metrics.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Fatigue ; Health Personnel ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Thorax

BACKGROUND: The facilitatory effect of spinal prostaglandins (PGs) on nociceptive transmission suggests that early PG synthesis after nerve injury could be important in the development of allodynia. METHODS: The aim of this study is to examine the effects of diclofenac (nonselective COX inhibitor), SC-560 (selective COX-1 inhibitor), and NS-398 (selective COX-2 inhibitor) on mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in the neuropathic pain model. The rats underwent right L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL) and were assigned to three COX inhibitor groups to be injected intraperitoneally with different administration dosages (0.2 mg, 1 mg, 5 mg) 30 minutes before, and at 1, 2, and 3 days after SNL. The withdrawal threshold of both hindpaws in response to mechanical stimulation was measured by dynamic plantar anesthesiometer and the withdrawal ratio of right to left hindpaw was calculated. The thermal stimulation applied to both hindpaws by the plantar test was calculated different administration dosages were compared with the vehicle group. RESULTS: There were no differences in mechanical allodynia among the lower dosage groups (0.2 mg) until 14 days after SNL. However, 1 mg of NS-398 decreased mechanical allodynia compared with the vehicle group at 14 days after SNL, and 5 mg of NS-398 decreased mechanical allodynia at 3 days after SNL. However, there was no difference in thermal hyperalgesia between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that intraperitoneal administration of COX inhibitor (especially selective COX-2 inhibitor) after nerve ligation injury can attenuate the development of mechanical allodynia.
Animals ; Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors* ; Diclofenac ; Hyperalgesia ; Ligation* ; Neuralgia* ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases* ; Prostaglandins ; Rats* ; Spinal Nerves*

PURPOSE: Medicolegal problems start when the patient asserts the mistake of doctor and doctor does not accept it. The purpose of this study is to assess the actual condition of medicolegal problems and to provide solutions of medicolegal problems in the pediatric field. METHODS: There is not official statistical data about medicolegal problems in our country. We gathered data of legal insurance program of Korean Medical Association (KMA) and court cases and other fragmentary data. RESULTS: Between 1981 and 1995, of total 2, 338 cases reported to legal problem insurance program of KMA, most common ones were 748 cases of obstetrics and gynecology. Pediatric case was ranked at the 5th, 74 cases (3.1%). According to analysis of 41 medicolegal cases' after 1990, maltreatment of patient had the highest incidence of 14 cases, injection and medication were related to 12 cases, misdiagnosis was 9 cases, patient management were related to 4 cases, and others were 2 cases. The trial result of the medicolegal cases was that 31 cases were compensated, and 8 cases were defeated, and 2 cases were still in the process. CONCLUSION: The aspect of medical legal problem has the tendency of radicalism and systematization. This brings an economic destitution in the patient and gives damage to a doctor. In order to reduce medicolegal problem, doctor should offer a duty of explanation and efforts to his best to satisfy patient and endeavor to make an intimate doctor-patient relationship.
Diagnostic Errors ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Insurance ; Obstetrics