No abstract available.
Critical Illness* ; Lung* ; Ultrasonography*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Infant* ; Neurofibroma*

No abstract available.
Cholelithiasis* ; Korea*

In the diagnosis of acute spinal trauma, meticulous physical examination and history taking is the most important tool and auxilliary support support can be given by plain X-ray, CT or myelography, etc. But these cannot show the state of cord injury directly. On the contrary, MRI shows the cord directly as well as the soft and bony tissues. We analysed retrospectively 39 patients who suffered from acute spinal trauma at the level of cervical and thoracic spine and had their spine MRI taken. We verified the meaningful correlation between the signal change in the spinal cord on MRI and the degree of neurologic deficit and prognosis, using Frankel classification and trauma motor index at the time of admission and the final follow-up.
Classification ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Myelography ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Physical Examination ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Cord ; Spine

No abstract available.
Urinary Bladder*

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to analyze the process and characteristics of withholding or withdrawal of life support (WLS) in Korean intensive care units (ICUs). METHODS: This was a single-centered retrospective analysis of patients who died in the ICUs of a tertiary hospital in Korea from January to December 2012. WLS informed consents and clinical data were analyzed. RESULTS: Of 285 deaths during the study period, informed consents for WLS were obtained from 228 patients (80.0%). All WLS decisions were made by family members after the patient's loss of decision-making capacity. Decisions were made most frequently by the patient's son (50.6%). Patients in the WLS group were older than those in the non-WLS group, and older age was associated with the WLS decision. Thirty-seven patients (16.2%) died within one hour of WLS approval, and 182 patients (79.8%) died on the day of WLS approval. The most frequently withheld life support modality was chest compression (100%), followed by defibrillation (95.9%) and pacemaker insertion (63.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Aggressive and invasive life support measures were those most frequently withheld or withdrawn by decision-makers in Korean ICUs. The most common proxy was the son, rather than the spouse.
Humans ; Informed Consent* ; Intensive Care Units* ; Korea ; Life Support Care ; Proxy ; Retrospective Studies ; Spouses ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Thorax ; Withholding Treatment

Arthroscopy assisted anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) reconstruction with the autogenous bone-patellar tendon-bone(BPB) graft showed more favorable results in the hand of experienced surgeon, but it requires long leaming curve for skillful techniques. On the contrary, open method is very easy to learn, but it needs more soft tissue dissection affecting rehabilitation and morbidity. Arthrotomy through the patellar tendon harvest site provide good surgical approach without supplementary incision, and hence short operation time and good clinical result can be expected. The purpose of this study is to introduce this technique and compares the results with arthroscopic one. We performed 67 cases of ACL reconstruction with autogenous BPB graft through the patellar tendon harvest site. We recorded and analysed the physical findings, Lysholm score and Cybex test at preoperative and postoperative 3, 6, 12 months. Average Lysholm score was 58.0 preoperatively and 90.5 at postoperative one year. Cybex test at one year follow-up showed decreased muscle strength of quadriceps, which was nearly the same result with arthroscopic technique. In conclusion, this technique provided similar excellent clinical results comparing with the arthroscopy assisted ones. Furthermore, this technique had merits of short learning curve and short operation time.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction* ; Anterior Cruciate Ligament* ; Arthroscopy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hand ; Learning Curve ; Muscle Strength ; Patellar Ligament* ; Rehabilitation ; Transplants

The dysplastic nevus is a rare form of melanocytic nevus in Korean people. During the past 5 years the authors experienced 5 cases in the St. Mary's Hospital and Kang Nam St. Mary's Hospital. The criteria and the histologic findings of dysplastic nevi are debated in the western literature. Clinically, all cases were greater than 5 mm in size with ill defined irregular borders and irregularly distributed pigmentation. Histopathologically, all cases showed numerous discrete individual nests of melanocytes located in the dermoepidermal junction and the papillary dermis and were characterized by extension of dermoepidermal component of the nevus at the "shoulder" beyond the dermal component of the nevus. There was no cytologic atypia of nevus cells in all cases. Our cases lacked personal or family history of malignant melanoma. Therefore, we believe our cases are nonfamilial, sporadic and benign nevi with no prognostic significance. A brief review of the literature and a discussion on the term "dysplastic" and clinicopathologic correlation are made.

The halophilic bacterium, Vibrio vulnificus, causes acute fulminating wound infections and septicemia in human. Especially the septicemia shows high mortality above 50%. In Korea, septicemia by V. vulnificus was reported at westem and southern coast in every year. Here, we try to isolate this V. vulnipcus at Kyoung-nam area and coast of Pusan during 1996. Purposed sites were Dadaepo, Songjung, Chungsapo and Mipo of Pusan and Kijang, Ilkuang, Juksoung, Dongam, Waljun and Chilam of southern sea. Total 40 strains of V. vulnipcus were isolated from sea samples. Biochemical characteristics of isolated V. vulnificus were almost same with reference strain V. vulnificus ATCC 27562 on Farmer's tests and on API 20E kit test. V. vulnificus isolates in 1996, fermented cellobiose and salicin but arabinose. and had resistance to 7% sodium chloride.
Arabinose ; Busan* ; Cellobiose ; Humans ; Korea* ; Mortality ; Sepsis ; Sodium Chloride ; Vibrio vulnificus* ; Vibrio* ; Wound Infection

A novel bacteriophage, designated as VPP97, that infects the strains of Vibiro parahaemolyticus (hallophilic, Gram-negative bacterium) isolated most commonly from marine environments, has been discovered, and several of its properties have been determined. The plaques were clear and sized 0.6-1.0 mm in diameter. The virion forms a single band on 70% sucrose gradient and p1.50 CsC1 gradient by sucrose gradient centrifugation and CsCI gradient centrifugation respectively. It has a hexagonal head and a relatively long tail, as shown by electron microscopy. Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio fluvialis and Vibrio furnissii were also sensitive to this phage It was almost totally inactivated at 70 degree C and at pH below 5 or over 10. The nucleic acid of VPP97 is composed of DNA. The VPP97 had 9 specific structural proteins sized between 21.5 kDa and 97.4 kDa on SDS-PAGE. When V. parahaemolyticus cultures were treated with either phage VPP97 or one of the several antibiotics for 2 hours, the viable number of V. parahaemolyticus treated with the phage VPP97 is lower than that treated with chloramphenicol, erythromycin or penicillin, but not lower than that treated with tetracycline. Mice that have responded to the phage treatment revealed the lower numbers of V. parahaemolyticus in small intestine and less damage on small intestine compared to the untreated mice. Therefore, we suggest that the phage treatment appears effective to the infection by V. parahaemolyticus.
Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteriophages* ; Centrifugation ; Chloramphenicol ; DNA ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Erythromycin ; Head ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Intestine, Small ; Mice ; Microscopy, Electron ; Penicillins ; Sucrose ; Tail ; Tetracycline ; Vibrio alginolyticus ; Vibrio parahaemolyticus* ; Vibrio* ; Virion