BACKGROUND: There are a few methods, including primary intention, deleyed primary closure and secondary intention, to irpair several types of defects. But commonly-used primary intentional repair of a defect after surgical removal of a skin cancer by graft, flap or simple closure has several limitations such as the need of a skillful technique and various complications. OBJECTIVE: We undertook a secondary intention using occlusive dressing with a polyurethane film after skin cancer surgery instead of a primary repair and evaluated its efficacy, particularly in points of simplicity and safety, and cosmetic results. METHODS: We randomly chose 14 cases of skin cancers in 13 patients who had undergone simple surgical excision or Mohs micrographic surgery and then undertook secondary intention with polyurethane film after informed consent. Postsurgical wound care included cleansing with normal saline or boric acid, then covering the defect with antibiotic ointment, gauze and film a at regular intervals.
Humans ; Informed Consent ; Intention* ; Mohs Surgery ; Occlusive Dressings ; Polyurethanes ; Skin Neoplasms* ; Skin* ; Transplants ; Wounds and Injuries

Immunohistochemical study was performed for CEA staining patterns and PCNA indices. And the relationship between immunohistochemical findings and well-known clinical prognostic factors on the purpose of the clinical usefulness was evaluated. In forty seven cases of surgically removed colorectal carcinomas, the results were as follows; CEA staining patterns were apical (17 cases) and cytoplasmic (30 cases) type. Carcinomas with cyto plasmic pattern for CEA revealed more advanced Dukes' stage and more undifferentiated type and higher incidence of lymph node metastasis and were correlated with increased serum CEA levels. But PCNA indices showed no correlation with the Dukes' stage, histologic grade and CEA staining patterns. The cytoplasmic pattern of CEA immunohistochemistry may be a useful marker suggesting more aggressive biologic behavior of the colorectal carcinomas.
Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Cytoplasm ; Immunohistochemistry ; Incidence ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen*

Mucormycosis is an opportunistic fungal infection caused by the mucorales, which consist of the Rhizophus, Absidia, Mortierella, and Mucor. The diverse clinical forms of mucormycosis can be categorized as rhinocerebral, pulmonary, disseminated, gastrointestinal, cutaneous and miscellaneous. Although it can cause disease in healthy people, it most commonly affects patients who are diabetic or immunosup-pressed. Rarely, mucormycosis develops confined to the subcutaneous tissue. We experienced a case of cutaneous mucormycosis developed in a well-controlled diabetic patient who had previously injected foreign material on her face for an aesthetic purpose at the behest of an unlicensed physician. The patient had tissue necrosis and purulent discharge on her left cheek. Following histologic examination, we diagnosed the condition as cutaneous mucormycosis and treated it by wide excision combined with amphotericin B therapy. The disease was cured without any significant sequelae within 6 months of follow up. Cutaneous mucormycosis is rarely reported but it can cause facial deformity due to tissue necrosis, so that early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are important. Currently, foreign material injection for aesthetic purposes is still performed by unlicensed physicians. We present a case report concluding that one should consider the possibility of fungal infection in skin lesion in diabetic or other immunosup-pressed patients. We also emphasize the seriousness of illegal injection of foreign material.
Absidia ; Amphotericin B ; Cheek ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Early Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mortierella ; Mucor ; Mucorales ; Mucormycosis* ; Necrosis ; Paraffin* ; Skin ; Subcutaneous Tissue

No abstract available.
Animals ; Macrophages, Peritoneal* ; Mice* ; Mycobacterium bovis*

In analyzing the postoperative results or evaluating the velopharyngeal incompetence after palatoplasty, speech evaluation is the inevitable factor. However, a standardized method for evaluating the speech problem in Korean cleft palate patients has not been available until now. So, the authors tried to establish a method of speech evaluation which is simple, economic and applicable to young patients, and to make a scoring method of the speech results in cleft palate patients based on the 'hypernasality diagnosing tool for cleft palate patient (OK Ran Jung)' which is commonly used by domestic speech therapists. The authors adopted the 'hypernasality diagnosing tool for cleft palate patients (OK Ran Jung)' male and female of children and adults, each consisting of 10 patients and make them speak according to the items about hypernasality and misarticulation evaluation, and record the results. We also calcuted the degree of the formants of the vowels (/a/, /o/, /u/)using sound spectrography. We examined the interjudge and intrajudge reliance of speech evaluation among the 10 inverstigators, revised the evaluation tool, devised the scoring method according to the above results, and compared the scoring results with those of sound spectrography to prove the reliance of our speech evaluation tool. With the scoring method, the authors could estimate the degree of hypemasality and misarticulation in cleft palate patients with evidence of reliability based on point-to-point agreement in two items. In comparing the results of our scoring method with the formant of vowels using sound spectrography, staistical significance existed except /u/F2 and that meant that our scoring method was reliable. We suggest that this simple, economic and reliable method of speech evaluation in cleft palate patients can create the basis for speech evaluation in patients of cleft palate and velopharyngeal incompetence under circumstances in which the results of various speech treatments are evaluated in comparison to various methods of speech evaluation.
Adult ; Articulation Disorders ; Child ; Cleft Palate* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Research Design ; Sound Spectrography ; Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Many methods of correcting secondary cleft lip nose deformity have been introduced, but a single best method that can be uniformly adjusted for all cases does not exist. Since it is difficult to make the nostril of the cleft side symmetric with that of normal side, the authors tried to formulate the basis for correction of unilateral secondary cleft lip nose deformity according to the varying amounts of deformed nostril. We then adopted 4 different methods of correcting the soft tissue and nostril deformity in 63 patients from 1996 to 1998 and surveyed the results. Our principles were as follows: 1) Alar rim incision was done in cases of different-shaped cleft-side nostrils with nearly the same measured area in comparison to the normal side. 2) When deformity of the alar-columellar web was severe, we performed modified Z-plasty. 3) When the nostril of the cleft-side nostril was smaller than the normal side with slight asymmetry, reverse W-plasty was done. 4) We adopted a reverse-U incision when there was a discrepancy in height with moderate asymmetry compared with the normal nostril. After dissection, repositioning of alar cartilage was done by same method in each case. A nasal stent was kept in position for at least 6 months postoperatively in almost all cases. After follow-up of 6 to 24 months, we concluded that our choice was correct in selecting the optimal operative method, considering the characteristics of deformity of the cleft side nostril in an effort to make it symmetric with that of the normal side.
Cartilage ; Cleft Lip* ; Congenital Abnormalities* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Nose* ; Stents

The incidence of hepatitis B has been reported to be high in dialysis centers. Dialysis patients are at increased risk of acquiring hepatitis B due to their immunodeficient state, which impairs elimination of the hepatitis B virus; chronic dialysis patients rarely clear hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) spontaneously. Hepatitis B virus infection is associated with a high risk of hepatic complications. We report the case of a 66-year-old HBsAg-positive female patient who had undergone hemodialysis for 58 months due to end-stage renal failure and became HBsAg-negative followed by the development of hepatitis B surface antibody.
Aged ; Dialysis ; Female ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Renal Dialysis*

Desmoplastic trichoepithelioma is a rare benign adnexal tumor with female preponderance, most commonly located on the face. Clinically, the tumor measures from 3 to 8mm in diameter, and has a raised, annular border and a depressed nonulcerated center. The three characteristic histologic features are narrow strands of tumor cells, horn cysts, and a desmoplastic stroma. We report herein a case of desmoplastic trichoepithelioma in a 25-year-old woman who had an asymptomatic hard annular nodule with a raised border and depressed center on the left cheek.
Adult ; Animals ; Cheek ; Female ; Horns ; Humans

Background & Objective: The MAPT H1 haplotype and SNCA single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs356219 have been reported to have a synergistic effect on the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Because the H1/H1 genotype has been reported to predominate in Korean population, we investigated the polymorphism of rs356219 in 878 PD patients and 559 controls. Methods: The SNCA SNP rs356219 was analyzed in 878 PD patients and in 559 healthy Korean subjects. Results: The G allele of SNCA SNP rs356219 was found to contribute to PD susceptibility with odds ratios (ORs) similar to those reported previously. However, the ORs were not as large as that of the SNCA rs356219 plus MAPT H1/H1 combination reported in the literature, which cast doubt on the existence of a synergistic effect between the two genotypes in our population. Conclusions: This study supports that the G allele of the SNCA SNP rs356219 contributes to PD susceptibility as reported previously, but it does not support the presence of a synergistic interaction between SNCA and MAPT.

Traditionally, schizophrenia is considered to be a result of dopaminergic hyperactivity while dopaminergic deficiency underlies Parkinson’s disease (PD). This opposing pathophysiology makes comorbid schizophrenia and PD seemingly impossible; however, they do coexist rarely in clinical practice. We present four patients with paranoid schizophrenia diagnosed in their youth who developed parkinsonian symptoms on a stable regimen of quetiapine or clozapine after several years. The diagnosis of comorbid schizophrenia and PD was made mainly according to clinical observation. In addition, dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging with 18F-FP-CIT PET was done in two patients, which showed normal DAT density. It is believed that dopaminergic dysfunction in distinct dopaminergic pathways may explain the coexistence of these two disorders