BACKGROUND: If two or more doctors prescribe for one patient, each doctor must be careful to minimize the number of drugs and the frequency of admistration, and also be careful to avoid duplicating drugs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness of prescription for the patient who visits two or more doctors. METHODS: In a tertiary hospital, outpatients who received prescriptions simultaneously from two or more doctors were selected, and the number of drugs, the frequency of admistration and duplication of drugs were evaluated. RESULTS: The number of eligible patients was 887. The number of drugs was 5.2 for patients who visited 2 doctors, and 8.1 for patients who visited 3 doctors. 13% of patients who visited 2 doctors received more than 8 drugs, and 32.6% of patients who visited 3 doctors received more than 10 drugs. The frequency of administration per day was 3.7 for patients who visited 2 doctors, and 5.0 for patients who visited 3 doctors. 12% of patients who visited 2 doctors had to take drug more than 6 times a day and 9.3% of patients who visited 3 doctors had to take drug more than 8 times a day. 9.2% of total patients received duplicated drugs. The duplication of drugs was more frequent among patients who visited 2 doctors than who visited 3 doctors. CONCLUSIONS: For the patients who visited two or more doctors, the number of drugs and frequency of admistration was inappropriate and duplication of drugs was found, therefore the doctors should make more efforts to avoid inappropriate prescription.
Drug Prescriptions* ; Humans ; Inappropriate Prescribing ; Outpatients ; Prescriptions ; Tertiary Care Centers

No abstract available.
Korea* ; Swine*

No abstract available.
Catheters*

Fracture of the shaft of the humerus had been treated by many different way, such as hanging cast, shoulder spica cast, abduction splint, and Velpeau bandage, etc, The authors have employed the new trianglar splint designed by ourselves for the 54 cases of fracture of the humeral shaft from Jan., 1965 to Oct., 1976 in the department of Orthopedic surgery of Han-il Hospital. In our experience, the triangular splint method is useful for not only fracture between the head of the humerus and supracondylar region, but also shoulder joint injuries and diseases which need firm immobilization. The triangular splint method has merits, such as spontaneous reduction by the fractured arm weight with gravity, the stability during care, relatively comfort during procedure. Satisfactory results had been obtained by the triangular splint method.
Arm ; Bandages ; Gravitation ; Head ; Humerus ; Immobilization ; Methods ; Orthopedics ; Shoulder ; Shoulder Joint ; Splints

Numerous drugs are known to cause seizures with therapeutic use or overdose. However, the relative frequency of such complications has rarely been studied, and little is known about the relationship of drug-induced seizures to eventual medical outcome. This study was performed to determine the causes and consequences of seizure associated with poisoning and drug intoxication. We analyzed about 786 cases of drug intoxication visited to Chung-Ang Gil hospital during recent 4 years from Jan. 1993 to Dec. 1996. The results were summarized as follows: 1. The total number of cases of drug intoxication was 786 and the most common drug of intoxication was antihistamines(291 cases, 36.3%); insecticides(113 cases, 14.7%); caustics(90 cases, 11.8%); herbicides(47 cases, 6.1%); NSAID(38 cases, 4.9%); rodenticides(36 cases, 4.6%); acetaminophens(34 cases, 4.4%); anticonvulsants(18 cses, 2.3%); neuroleptics(13 cases, 1.6%); hydrocarbons(9 cases, 1.2%); sympathomimetics(8 cases, 1.0%). 2. The leading causes of seizures were antihistamines(12 cases, 42.8%); insecticides(7 cases, 25.0%); sympathomimetics(3cases, 10.7%); neuroleptics(2 cases, 7.2%); others(4 cases, 14.3%). 3. Seizures associated with antihistamines were generally brief(11 cases, 92.0%) and uncomplicated(3 cases, 25.0%). 4. Seizures incidence by drug intoxication was relatively high in sympathomimetics(3 cases, 35.7%); and neuroleptics(2 cases, 15.4%). 5. Poisoning associated with seizure had relatively high risk compared with non seizure poisoning for medical complication.
Drug Overdose* ; Histamine Antagonists ; Incidence ; Poisoning* ; Seizures*

No abstract available.

STUDY DESIGN: The authors is to report the clinical and radiological results of proximal half corpectomy with one motion segment fusion in Denis type B burst fracture. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of proximal half corpectomy in Denis type B burst fracture of thethoracolumbar and lumbar spine. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW: For the operative management of burst fracture, various mothods including posterior ligamentotaxis, posterolateral decompression, anterior decompression or combined were reported. Among the methods, anterior decompression by the corpectomy of fractured vertebral body and fusion with or without instrumentation is the one of the widely accepted method of treatment. However, anterior decompression by excision of whole vertebral body has the disadvantage of high complication rate due to the instability from the large defect and long length of bone graft. Moreover, two motion segments have to be sacrified, which is very important especially in thoracolumbar and lumbar area. Material and METHODS: 43 cases operated from 1989 to 1996 and the minimum follow up period was two years and compared with that of 48 cases who were treated by total corpectomy and two motion segment fashion from 1986 to 1989. RESULTS: Solid bony union was obtained in 43 cases within 6 months and no back pain was complained in 39 cases (93%) at last follow up. There was no significant difference between two groups in correction of anterior vertebral height and kyphotic angle. Length of bone graft was 3.0cm in half corpectomy group and was 6.3cm in total corpectomy group. Hardward breakage or graft collapse was not observed in proximal half corpectomy, while there were 5 cases in total corpectomy. CONCLUSION: Proximal half corpectomy and fusion of one motion segment in Denis type B burst fracture is believed to be a successful method which can minimize the fused level, increase the stability, preserve motion segment and reduce the complication.
Back Pain ; Decompression ; Follow-Up Studies ; Spine* ; Transplants

Duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are uncommon and a relatively small subset of GISTs whose optimal surgical procedure has not been well defined. Because submucosal spread and local lymph node involvement is infrequent in GISTs, wide margins with routine lymph node dissection may not be required. Various techniques of limited resection for duodenal GISTs have been described depending on the site and the size of the tumors. In this study, we report two cases of GIST involving the third and fourth portion of the duodenum successfully treated by segmental duodenectomy with end-to-end duodenojejunostomy. This technique should be considered as a treatment option for GIST located at the third and fourth portion of the duodenum.
Duodenum ; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes

BACKGROUND: Cosmetics are one of the common causes of contact dermatitis and many new cosmetic products are being introduced rapidly into our market. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to investigate the as is patch test result by several factors including age, cosmetic product and atopic diseases, and to compare as is patch result with those of standard and cosmetic patch tests. METHODS: The records of 240 patients were reviewed who had been patch tested with their own cosmetics and toiletries with a clinical impression of cosmetic contact dermatitis at the patch clinic of Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital in the period of 1991-1995. RESULTS: Of the 95 patients who were tested with European standard series 54 (56.8%) showed a positive reaction and nickel sulfate was the most common allergen. Eighteen (38.3%) of the 47 patients tested with a cosmetic series revealed a positive reaction and imidazolidinyl urea and dodecyl gallate were the most common allergens. In as is patch test, 99 (41.3%) of the 240 patients showed a positive reaction to 248 (7.3%) of the 3403 cosmetics. Common cosmetic products showing positive reactions were skin care products (26.2%), face make-ups (19.8%), and hair preparations (16.9%). There was no statistically significant difference in the positive reaction rate between atopy and non-atopy patients. The positive correlation rate of as is test with standard and cosmetic series was relatively low. CONCLUSION: Commercial standard patch test series including cosmetic series are not enough to detect causative allergen in cosmetic contact dermatitis. As is patch test should be encouraged to detect new allergens, because many cosmetic ingredients are developed and introduced in market.
Allergens ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Hair Preparations ; Humans ; Nickel ; Patch Tests* ; Skin Care ; Urea

The aims of this experiment were to investigate the strain and temperature changes simultaneously within autopolymerizing acrylic resin specimens. A computerized data acquisition system with an electrical resistance strain gauge and a thermocouple was used over time periods up to 180 minutes. The overall strain kinetics, the effects of stress relaxation and additional heat supply during the polymerization were evaluated. Stone mold replicas with an inner butt-joint rectangular cavity (40.0x25.0mm, 5.0mm in depth) were duplicated from a brass master mold. A strain gauge (AE-11-S50N-120-EC, CAS Inc., Korea) and a thermocouple were installed within the cavity, which had been connected to a personal computer and a precision signal conditioning amplifier (DA 1600 Dynamic Strain Amplifier, CAS Inc., Korea) so that real-time recordings of both polymerization-induced strain and temperature changes were performed. After each of fresh resin mixture was poured into the mold replica, data recording was done up to 180 minutes with three-second interval. Each of two poly (methyl methacrylate) products (Duralay, Vertex) and a vinyl ethyl methacrylate product (Snap) was examined repeatedly ten times. Additionally, removal procedures were done after 15, 30 and 60 minutes from the start of mixing to evaluate the effect of stress relaxation after deflasking. Six specimens for each of nine conditions were examined. After removal from the mold, the specimen continued benchcuring up to 180 minutes. Using a waterbath (Hanau Junior Curing Unit, Model No.76-0, Teledyne Hanau, New York, U.S.A.) with its temperature control maintained at 50degrees C, heat-soaking procedures with two different durations (15 and 45 minutes) were done to evaluate the effect of additional heat supply on the strain and temperature changes within the specimen during the polymerization. Five specimens for each of six conditions were examined. Within the parameters of this study the following results were drawn : 1. The mean shrinkage strains reached -3095mu epsilon, -1796mu epsilon and -2959mu epsilon for Duralay, Snap and Vertex, respectively. The mean maximum temperature rise reached 56.7degrees C, 41.3degrees C and 56.1degrees C for Duralay, Snap, and Vertex, respectively. A vinyl ethyl methacrylate product (Snap) showed significantly less polymerization shrinkage strain (p<0.01) and significantly lower maximum temperature rise (p<0.01) than the other two poly (methyl methacrylate) products (Duralay, Vertex). 2. Mean maximum shrinkage rate for each resin was calculated to ?31.8mu epsilon/sec, -15.9mu epsilon/sec and ?31.8mu epsilon/sec for Duralay, Snap and Vertex, respectively. Snap showed significantly lower maximum shrinkage rate than Duralay and Vertex (p<0.01). 3. from the second experiment, some expansion was observed immediately after removal of specimen from the mold, and the amount of expansion increased as the removal time was delayed. For each removal time, Snap showed significantly less strain changes than the other two poly (methyl methacrylate) products (p<0.05). 4. During the external heat supply for the resins, higher maximum temperature rises were found. Meanwhile, the maximum shrinkage rates were not different from those of room temperature polymerizations. 5. From the third experiment, the external heat supply for the resins during polymerization could temporarily decrease or even reverse shrinkage strains of each material. But, shrinkage re-occurred in the linear nature after completion of heat supply. 6. Linear thermal expansion coefficients obtained from the end of heat supply continuing for an additional 5 minutes, showed that Snap exhibited significantly lower values than the other two poly (methyl methacrylate) products (p<0.01). Moreover, little difference was found between the mean linear thermal expansion coefficients obtained from two different heating durations (p>0.05).
Acrylic Resins* ; Electric Impedance ; Fungi ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Kinetics ; Microcomputers ; Polymerization* ; Polymers* ; Relaxation