For trauma patients with severe shock, massive fluid resuscitation is necessary. However, shock and a large amount of fluid can cause bowel and retroperitoneal edema, which sometimes leads to abdominal compartment syndrome in patients without abdomino-pelvic injury. If other emergent operations except intraabdomen are needed, a distended abdomen is likely to be recognized late, leading to multiple organ dysfunction. Herein, we report two cases of a 23-year-old woman who was in a car accident and a 53-year old man who was pressed on his leg by a pressing machine; severe brain swelling and popliteal vessel injury were diagnosed, respectively. They were both in severe shock and massive fluid resuscitation was required in the emergency department. Distended abdomen was recognized in both the female and male patients immediately after neurosurgical operation and immediately before orthopaedic operation in the operating room, respectively. Decompressive laparotomy revealed massive ascites with retroperitoneal edema.
Abdomen ; Ascites ; Brain Edema ; Edema ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Humans ; Intra-Abdominal Hypertension* ; Laparotomy ; Leg ; Male ; Operating Rooms* ; Resuscitation ; Shock ; Young Adult

Torsades de pointes, a polymorphic ventricular tachycardia associated with prolonged QT interval, is a well-known life-threatening arrhythmia, which has been found to be induced by various causes such as drugs, electrolyte imbalances, and severe bradycardia. Cisapride is a gastrointestinal prokinetic drug, which is widely used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease or other functional gastrointestinal disorders. Cisapride can cause torsades de pointes and cases of torsedes de pointes induced by cisapride have been reported in other countries. Cases of torsades de pointes associated with antihistamine drugs have been reported in Korea, however, cisapride-induced torsades de pointes case has not been reported. We report a case of 31 year-old female patient who experienced repeated loss of consciousness due to cisapride-induced torsades de pointes.
Adult ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Bradycardia ; Cisapride* ; Female ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Humans ; Korea ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; Torsades de Pointes* ; Unconsciousness

Korea is one of the fastest aging country in the world. The increase in health expenditure is an inevitable problem in an aging country. We examined trend of benefit expenditure in National Health Insurance (NHI) by age group during 2001 to 2016. The benefit expenditure of NHI was 13.0 trillion won (2001) and 48.7 trillion won (2016); that is 3.76 times to 2001. This rapid increase was mostly due to people aged 65 and over. Proportion of beneficiaries aged 65 and over was 6.9% (2001) and 13.7% (2016), benefit expenditure per capita aged 65 and over was 279 thousand won (2001) and 960 thousand won (2016), and utilization days per capita aged 65 and over 21.44 (2001) and 30.23 (2016). This phenomenon was more pronounced in 75 or 85 aged and over. To contain the health costs for older people, the NHI system should be reformed.
Aging ; Health Care Costs ; Health Expenditures ; Humans ; Korea ; National Health Programs

Twenty-five patients with unstable fracture or fracture-dislocation of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spines were treated with Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation. Internal fixation was done in two ways; long rodding in seventeen patients and short rodding in eight. Short segment posterolateral or posterior autogenous iliac bone graft was done in all cases. The amount of correction of the collapsed anterior vertebral body height and the local kyphotic angle at the immediate post-operation were similar between the two groups, but loss of correction at last follow-up was more severe in the short rodding group. Instrument failure was also more common in the short rodding group. In conclusion, it was found that short segment stabilization of spine fractures with Cotrel-Dubousset instrument can effectively reduce fracture but can not maintain reduction until fusion. Therefore, long rodding was reconfirmed to be the better method of stabilization of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spines fractures.
Body Height ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Methods ; Spine ; Transplants

OBJECTIVES: The early detection of ectopic tubal pregnancy in unruptured state is increased as the transvaginal sonography and sensitive serum hCG test are available. For this unruptured tubal pregnancy, the medical treatment using methotrexate via various routes and dosage is being tried. Our study was to evaluate the efficacy of single systemic injection of methotrexate in the treatment of unruptured tubal pregnancies. Material and METHODS: From the January 1997 to July 1999, of 152 ectopic pregnancy patients, 22 patients who were diagnosed as unruptured tubal pregnancies were treated with single-dose systemic methotrexate injection (50 mg/m2/IM). Exclusion criteria were unstable vital signs with hemoperitoneum, adnexal mass > 5-6 cm. Serum hCG titers were checked before injection and 4, 7 day after injection. If serum hCG titer declined more than 15% on 7 day after injection compared with titer on 4 day, the weekly hCG titer was followed until it was <10 mIU/ml .If the hCG titer did not decline more than 15 %, a second dose was given. If hCG titer was not decreased or vital signs became unstable after 1-2 injections, the treatment was considered failure and surgery was done. RESULTS: 18 cases (82%) of 22 were successfully treated with single-dose methotrexate. The mean size of ectopic mass and initial serum hCG titers were 2.7+/-1.3 cm (range, 1.5-5.4 cm) and 3,298+/-1,007 mIU/ml (range, 132-12,239), respectively. Of 22, 6 cases (28%) needed second dose of methotrexate. The mean time to resolution of serum beta-hCG titer was 27.5+/-13.6 days (range, 8-53 days). Elevation of liver enzyme did not occurred in all cases during treatment. Initial hCG titer was more important prognostic factor than ectopic mass size for successful medical treatment. CONCLUSION: Single-dose methotrexate appears to be an effective medical treatment for the unruptured tubal pregnancy. However, patients selection using strict criteria is needed to increase its success rate.
Female ; Hemoperitoneum ; Humans ; Liver ; Methotrexate* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Pregnancy, Tubal* ; Vital Signs

No abstract available.
Family Practice* ; Hospitals, Community* ; Humans

This study was performed to identify there maternal risk factors for the low birth weight. During the period from February to June in 1991, the medical record review and questionnaire interview were conducted upon the 465 pregnant women who were admitted to and delivered a baby in 3 general hospitals and an obstetric hospital in Kwangju area. The health and other related information from women who bore the low birth weight infant was compared with those from women who bore the normal birth weight infant. The results obtained were as follows: 1. Maternal age, low body weight at term, illegitimate birth, and maintaining work activity during pregnancy were positively associated with low birth weight. 2. The positive association was revealed between low birth weight and the previous abortion, short gestational weeks, anemia, low maternal weight gain during pregnancy, the obstetric present illness and hypertension. 3. Some maternal working conditions were associated with low birth weight although statistically not significant. 4. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, gestational weeks and maternal weight gain during pregnancy were related with low birth weight.
Abortion, Induced ; Anemia ; Birth Weight ; Body Weight ; Female ; Gwangju ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight* ; Infant, Newborn ; Logistic Models ; Maternal Age ; Medical Records ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors* ; Weight Gain

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the relationship among cognitive function, nutrition screening initiative (NSI) score, and food intake status. METHODS: A total of 409 subjects aged over 60 years were recruited from the Yongin dementia prevention and control center. Mini Mental State Examination Dementia Screening (MMSE-DS) method was used to assess the cognitive function of the subjects. Information on health related behaviors and food intake was collected by face to face interview using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaires included the NSI DETERMINE checklist, food intake sheets by 24 hr recall method and by semi-quantified food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: Subjects were divided into low cognitive or normal groups according to the MMSE-DS result. The prevalence of low cognitive function in the subjects was 25.7%. The low cognitive group exercised less and had higher nutritional health risk than the normal group. The low cognitive group had lower consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acid and higher tendency of thiamin, riboflavin, and iron deficiency. The low cognitive group had less frequency of eating mackerel, pepper, tangerine, and watermelon and higher frequency of eating white rice and cookies than the normal group. CONCLUSION: The results of this study imply that the cognitive function of elderly is related to exercise behavior, nutritional health risk, and food and nutrient intake status.
Aged* ; Checklist ; Citrullus ; Cognition* ; Dementia ; Eating ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Iron ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Perciformes ; Prevalence ; Riboflavin

Sudden cardiac death accounts for approximately half of all cardiovascular mortality in the industrialized countries and ventricular tachyarrhythmia is the most common mechanism for this event. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been effectively used for prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias since 1980. Clinical experience with ICD device now exceeds 100,000 implants worldwide and the number of implantation is increasing. In Korea, there is also increasing trend of ICD implantation. The authors report the initial experience of of ICD implantation in 6 patients who had high risk of sudden cardiac death.
Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Defibrillators, Implantable* ; Developed Countries ; Humans ; Korea ; Mortality ; Tachycardia

Background: With the recent aging of the population, the transition to a disease structure centered on chronic diseases is accelerating. Moreover, the socio-economic gap and the polarization of the health gap between regions further increase the burden of disease on the country. Accordingly, this study calculated the disease cost of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, which are the three major chronic diseases, to establish an effective health promotion policy strategy for each region, and analyzed the gap in disease cost within the region to determine health determinants at the individual as well as the regional level. Methods: This study utilized data from the 2015 sample cohort of the National Health Insurance Service and calculated the disease cost of patients (diabetes: I10–I15, hypertension: E10–E14, hyperlipidemia: E78) based on the main diagnosis. Results: Based on our analysis, the case of medical use in cities and provinces was higher than in metropolitan cities, with relatively small medical use in Seoul and Gangwon-do. In terms of the disease cost, the cost of chronic diseases in Seoul and Jeju was the highest, but the difference in disease cost between patients in each region was the largest in Seoul and Gangwon-do. Conclusion The results of this study provide meaningful data for implementing efficient health promotion policies by analyzing the differences in disease cost and identifying health determinants in different regions. Furthermore, in Korea, where socioeconomic differences are clearly revealed, it can be used as a basis for preparing a strategic plan, from a long-term perspective, to improve the health of patients with chronic diseases in the future.