No abstract available.
Muscle Spasticity* ; Upper Extremity*

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.
Acceleration* ; Elbow Joint* ; Elbow* ; Relaxation*

OBJECTIVE: Several kinds of steroids had been used epidurally for the treatment of low back pain, but there were few available medical reports as to the effects of each steroid. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of epidural steroid injections and to investigate the factors affecting the results. METHOD: Forty four backache patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group 1, epidural saline as a control group(n=12); Group 2, epidural triamcinolone and 1% lidocaine(n=13); Group 3, epidural dexamethasone and 1% lidocaine(n=19). The effects of epidural injections were measured by pain self-assessment scale(pain score) and Rubin scale(success rate). RESULTS: The pain scores of steroid groups after one to seven days after the injections were significantly lower than those of the control group(p<0.05), but there were no statistical differences(p>0.05) between two steroid groups. The overall success rate of the steroid groups was 68.8%. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the steroid groups with respect to sex, age and duration, the younger age group seemed to respond better to the treatment. CONCLUSION: We founded that epidural steroid injection could be a valuable adjunct to the management of low back pain but its effective duration was relatively short. Physicians should keep in mind that comprehensive treatment including rest, medication, physical therapy, exercise and education ought to be provided for the better clinical results.
Back Pain ; Dexamethasone ; Education ; Exercise Therapy ; Humans ; Injections, Epidural ; Low Back Pain* ; Self-Assessment ; Steroids ; Triamcinolone

No abstract available.
Paralysis*

No abstract available.
Skin*

No abstract available.
Huntington Disease*

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the Rolyan, hemisling, remodified Bobath, and the newly designed triangular Bobath slings. Sixteen patients with a shoulder subluxation were evaluated by the simple shoulder AP X-rays with and without slings. The hemisling was applied with the elbow flexed at 90 and 120 degrees. The radiologic evaluation for the detection of shoulder subluxation was done by measuring the vertical and horizontal displacement on a plain AP view. The mean value of vertical displacement without a sling application was 5.21 cm which was reduced to 4.30 cm by a triangular Bobath sling application and 4.32 cm by a hemisling application at 120degrees elbow flexion. These two slings significantly corrected the vertical displacement, but other were not. In nine of sixteen patients, the triangular Bobath sling was the best sling for the vertical correction. All slings except a hemisling increased the horizontal displacement even though it was not statistically significant. The triangular Bobath sling improved the discomfort of the axilla better than the remodified Bobath sling. The results support that the triangular Bobath sling was the best among 4 slings for the correction of shoulder subluxation, although a reduction in lateral displacement and an improvement in applicability need to be explored further.
Axilla ; Elbow ; Hemiplegia* ; Humans ; Shoulder*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to present the epidemiological data on patients with a stroke admitted to the severance hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine (YUMC) and to investigate the significant risk factors of stroke. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 532 patients with a stroke admitted to the hospital of from 1992 to 1996 retrospectively. RESULTS: The incidence was highest in the sixth decade. Ischemic stroke (64.3%) was more common than a hemorrhagic stroke (35.7%) and the thrombotic infarction was the leading type (28.3%) of all kinds of stroke. Middle cerebral arterial territory was the most commonly involved site for the thrombotic and embolic stroke. Of the intracerebral hemorrhages, basal ganglia (48.4%) was the most commonly involved site with was followed by the thalamus (24.2%), lobar (19.3%), and cerebellum (6.5%). In subarachnoid hemorrhages, the aneurysm was most frequently located in the middle cerebral artery (34.4%). The possible contributing factors of stroke were hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking and diabetes mellitus. The common complications during hospitalization were the frozen shoulders, depression, pneumonia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), and hydrocephalus. CONCLUSION: This study showed the changing trends of stroke in its distribution of subtypes. Multicenter prospective study using stroke registry would be required for the determination of national epidemiologic trends.
Aneurysm ; Basal Ganglia ; Cerebellum ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Depression ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Epidemiology ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Infarction ; Medical Records ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Pneumonia ; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Shoulder ; Smoking ; Stroke* ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ; Thalamus

The current available treatment methods of spasticity are consisted of physical therapies, medications, surgeries, injections of phenol or botulinum, and electrical stimulations. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of surface electrical stimulation in reducing spasticity in the spinal cord injured patients, to find out carry-over effects of electrical stimulation and to find out the factors influencing the effects of the treatment. The subjects were 10 quadriplegics with the cervical cord injuries. The electrical stimulation was applied to the antagonists of major spastic muscles of the knee joints for 2 weeks. The evaluation of spasticity were done by using the modified Ashworth scale, beats of ankle clonus, patellar tendon reflex(latency and amplitude), and relaxation index of patellar knee by pendulum test before and after treatment sessions. The results of the study revealed no statistically significant changes in relaxation index, modified Ashworth scale, ankle clonus and the latency and amplitude of patellar tendon reflex(P<0.05), however there were tendencies of improvement in relaxation index and modified Ashworth scale after the stimulations. We could not find out statistically significant factors influencing the effects of the surface electrical stimulation. Further investigations to assess the mechanism of electrical stimulation and the adquate parameters of electrical stimulation in a larger population of subjects will be needed.
Ankle ; Electric Stimulation* ; Humans ; Knee ; Knee Joint ; Muscle Spasticity* ; Muscles ; Patellar Ligament ; Phenol ; Relaxation ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Spinal Cord*