No abstract available.
Asthma*

As the use of free tissue reconstruction becomes more routine, attention is being focused not only on flap survival, but also on functional refinements in these flaps. One of the more important aspects of improving the outcome of these reconstruction may relate to the return of sensation. The anterolateral thigh free flap is based on the descending branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery. This fasciocutaneous flap is indicated whenever a relatively thin flap is required in reconstruction. A neurosensory flap can be employed based on the anterior branched of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve of the thigh. Since 1996, 15 patients with soft tissue defect on various regious were treated by using the anterolateral thigh sensate free falp. All flaps survived without total loss. Anastomosis of the sensible nerve on the recipient site with the anterior branch of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve of the thigh was performed. All patients showed recovery of sensation in the anterolateral thigh sensate free falp beginning between the 4th and 6th month postoperatively. Follow-up periods ranged from 8 to 34 months and the results of sensory recovery were satisfactory. Therefore, resensitization of an anterolateral thigh free flap should be attempted by a nerve anastomosis in this transplant. The longterm success in this study suggests the benefits of microsurgical neurotization in free tissue transplantation.
Femoral Artery ; Follow-Up Studies ; Free Tissue Flaps* ; Humans ; Nerve Transfer ; Sensation ; Thigh* ; Tissue Transplantation ; Transplants

PURPOSE: To evaluate etiology, risk factors and clinical features in eyes with sports-related injuries. METHOD: A prospective evaluation of all patients presenting with a sports-related ocular injury was conducted at Dongguk University Pohang Hospital from January 1999 to December 1999. RESULT: There were 29 patients, representing 8.0% of all ocular trauma patients. Male was injured more often than female by a ratio of 6.25:1, and the mean age was 25.8+/-14.3 years. Soccer accounted for 37.9% and basketball accounted for 13.8% of all injuries. The mechanism most frequently responsible for injuries was direct ball trauma(51.7%). Six patients(20.7%) wore spectacles, whereas none of patients wore protective eye wear, at the time of their injury. Lid subcutaneous hemorrhage or edema(12 eyes) was the most common injury, and corneal abrasion(11 eyes) and retinal edema(7 eyes) occurred frequently. Traumatic hyphema and traumatic iritis occurred in 5 eyes, respectively. CONCLUSION: Sports-related ocular trauma is one of the significant causes of ocular morbidity. Even though all sports-related ocular trauma is not preventable, increased education such as use of certified protective eye wear is needed if the frequency or severity of injuries is to be decreased.
Basketball ; Education ; Eyeglasses ; Female ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hyphema ; Iritis ; Male ; Prospective Studies ; Retinaldehyde ; Risk Factors ; Soccer

In the hand, few vessels can be classified as 'perforators'. Even today, the debate continues on whether or not branches of the digital artery should be considered as perforators. However, 'perforator' and 'perforator flaps' have become extremely popular within the microsurgery literature, and as such, the terminology has found widespread adoption across the hand surgery field. The finger is the most important sensory organ for tactile stimulation. The glabrous skin can be distinguished between the fingertip and the proximal tissue, with the fingertip having a higher functional and, therefore, reconstructive priority. Thus, sacrifice of the proximal glabrous skin can be justified in the reconstruction of fingertip defects. In this paper, the author reviews two flaps, 'lateral digital artery perforator flap' and 'volar digital artery perforator flap', both of which uses short branches of the digital artery as a vascular pedicle and are useful in fingertip construction.
Arteries* ; Fingers ; Hand ; Microsurgery ; Perforator Flap* ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; Skin

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: To report clinical features of visually disabled people by newly revised legal blindness criteria. METHODS: A prospective evaluation of all blind registrations was conducted at Dongguk University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2000. Detailed ophthalmologic evaluations were performed and the review of the diagnosis was done in order to find out the cause of the visual disability. RESULTS: There were 273 patients (343 eyes) for newly registered blindness. Of these, 190 (69.6%, 190/273) were men and mean age was 53.8+/-15.48. The sixth degree visual disability was most common (74.0%, 202/273) according to the newly revised legal blindness criteria, and most common cause of blindness was trauma (38.2%, 131/343). Government office advised 122 patients (44.7%, 122/273) to register legal blindness . CONCLUSION: Further nationwide epidemiological survey for legal visual disability is required by standardized classification and criteria.
Blindness ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Male ; Prospective Studies

It is recognized that there may be numerous medical hazards associated with the maintenance of relative humidity below 50 percent. These include the danger of producing hypothermia in patients, especially during long operative procedures; the fact that floating particulate matter increased in conditions of low relative humidity, and the fact that the incidence of wound infections is minimized following procedures performed in those operating rooms in which the relative humidity is maintained at the level of 50 to 55 percent. So, we have checked room temperature and relative humidity of operating theater in Hanyang University Hospital during 1 year from January, 1991. The results were as following; 1) Room temperature wae maintained at the level of 23.6+/-0.8 to 27.7+/-1.3 degrees C, and it was somewhat lower in shadowy rooms than in sunny ones. 2) Relative humidity was highest level in July, and it was maintaiaed at the level of 41.7+/-4.9 to 47.0+/-7.7%. Generally, it was decreased unsignificantly in order of ICU, recovery room, newbuilt shadowy rooms, old shadowy rooms, and sunny rooms. 3) Relative humidity was significantly decreased to 2.4+/-3.8-28.9+/-5.0% in spring, autumn, and winter. 4) Absolute humidity was maintained at the level of 11.6+/-1.7 mgH2O/L in summer, and l.l+/-1.4 mgH2O/L in winter. With above results, we recognized that room temperature of operating theater was maintained at the level of recommending degree, but relative humidity(percent) was too low to be suitable for operation and/or special patient care. This means that ventilation of operating theatre should be installed with proper temperature and relative humidity controlled units.
Humans ; Humidity* ; Hypothermia ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units* ; Critical Care* ; Operating Rooms* ; Particulate Matter ; Patient Care ; Recovery Room* ; Surgical Procedures, Operative ; Ventilation ; Wound Infection

OBJECTIVES: This subjects investigated the psychological characteristics of patients with functional dyspepsia. METHODS: The subjects included ninety patients with functional dyspepsia and sixty four psychiatric out-patients. We administered Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Illness Behavior Questionnaire(IBQ). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the patients with functional dyspepsia and the psychiatric out-patients by MMPI. Two groups both showed a higher distribution in hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria subscales than in any other subscales. The patients with functional dyspepsia showed lower scores in disease conviction and affective disturbance subscales in IBQ subscales were similar between the patients with functional dyspepsia and the psychiatric out-patients. The patients with functional dyspepsia were divided into three groups for the Multivariate cluster analysis: normal(group 1), similar to psychiatric out-patient(group 2), and severe neurotic(group 3). The severe neurotic group showed higher scores in hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychathenia, and schizophrenia subscales in MMPI and showed significant different scores in affective disturbance, disease conviction, psychological and somatic concerns, affective disturbance, denial, and irritability subscales in IBQ. CONCLUSION: If patients with functional dyspepsia show severe neurotic behavior, such as those in(group 3), they would need appropriate psychiatric intervention.
Denial (Psychology) ; Depression ; Dyspepsia* ; Humans ; Hypochondriasis ; Hysteria ; Illness Behavior ; MMPI ; Outpatients ; Psychology* ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: The differentiation of tuberculous effusion from the other causes of exudative pleural effusion remained difficult even with aids of biochemical analyses and pleural biopsy. As the pathophysiology of tuberculous pleural effusion is an enhanced cell mediated immunity, Adenosine deaminase(ADA) and various cytokines including Inteferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α) are considered as useful diagnostic tools in differentiating exudative pleural effusion The author would like to demonstrate the diagnostic usefulness of TNF-α in the differentiation of exudative pleural effusion, and compared the discriminating ability of TNF-α with ADA. METHODS: Pleural fluids obtained from 80 patients (tuberculous : 39, malignant : 31, parapneumonic : 10) with exudate pleural effusions were processed for cell counts and biochemical analysis including ADA and TNF-α RESULTS: Tuberculous pleural fluid showed higher levee of ADA and TNF-α, 48.7α 32.7U/L and 184.1±214.2pg/mL than that of non-tuberculous effusion 26.0α41.3U/L and 44.1α114.2pg/mL, respectively (ADA, TNF-α : p<0.05, p<0.01). Receiver operating characteristics(ROC) curves were generated for ADA and TNF-α, and the best cut-off value for adenosine deaminase and TNF-α were considered as 30U/L and 15pg/ml, respectively. Comparing the area under the ROC curves, there was no significant difference between ADA and TNF-α CONCLUSION: For the differential diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion from the other causes of exudative pleural effusions, TNF-α as well as ADA was considered as useful diagnostic method. However adding TNF-α to ADA has no further diagnotic benefit than ADA alone.
Adenosine ; Adenosine Deaminase ; Biopsy ; Cell Count ; Cytokines ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Exudates and Transudates ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Pleural Effusion* ; ROC Curve ; Tuberculosis ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*