PURPOSE: To analyse complications and to review usefulness of large needle(18G) in percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage(PTBD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: 46 patients underwent PTBD in 52 occassions using large needle. 44 of 46 patients had either definite or suspicious malignant biliary obstruction, and most patients were poor in general dondition. Complications were classified as acute type if developed within 30 days and as delayed type if developed after 30 days. Acute type was subdivided into severe and mild forms. RESULTS: Severe forms of complications were death(5.8%), septicemia(3.8%), and bile peritonitis(1.9%). There were not different from the rate of complication in PTBD using fine needle but the procedure was much more simple. CONCLUSION: We PTBD using large neddie is a simple and safe procedure for prompt bile decompression.
Bile ; Decompression ; Drainage* ; Humans ; Needles*

No abstract available.
Female ; Obstetric Labor, Premature* ; Pregnancy ; Ritodrine*

OBJECTIVE: We compared patients with chronic schizophrenia and normal controls with respect to decision-making ability. Measures were implemented to control for the participants' intelligence levels as well as to ensure to use of a moderate sample size. The goal of this study was to confirm inconsistent results from previous studies which had stemmed from too small of a sample size, highly variable performance of normal controls, and not controlling for intelligence as a confounding factor. METHODS: Fifty-two chronic stable schizophrenic inpatients and 55 healthy controls participated in the study. We controlled for intelligence by including subjects with intelligence quotient's (IQ) between 80 and 120, examining any differences in decision-making performance between groups on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). We also addressed several issues relating to performance on the IGT, such as working memory and clinical symptoms. RESULTS: Schizophrenic patients were found to perform poorly on the IGT relative to normal controls (F(1,105)=17.73, p<0.001); however, more importantly, they also displayed the slow yet profitable shift from disadvantageous decks to advantageous decks over time. We also found that when compared with healthy controls, schizophrenic patients showed a poorer performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)(t=-5.48, p<0.001 for perseverative error) which was not related to their performance on the IGT. CONCLUSION: Based on previous literature and the results of this study, impaired sensitivity to both reward and punishment might be a more plausible explanation for the poor performance on the IGT in the schizophrenic group. We speculated that this impairment seemed related more to the different responsiveness to the magnitude than to the frequency of punishment, and to the different interpretation of less informative verbal cues in the context of the reinforcing schedule.
Appointments and Schedules ; Cues ; Dietary Sucrose ; Gambling ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Intelligence ; Iowa ; Memory, Short-Term ; Punishment ; Reward ; Sample Size ; Schizophrenia ; Wisconsin

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to investigate the correlation between the symptoms and the incidence of anatomical variant without mucosal abnormality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Out of 892 patients with CT performed for the evaluation of sinus disease symptoms between March 1991 and March 1993, we observed the anatomic variations in 82 symptomatic patients without mucosal abnormality(male:female=43:39, mean age 36. 4 years). The control group included 88 patients with facial bone CT performed for the evaluation of trauma during the same period while patients with recent paranasal sinusitis were excluded. (male:female=76:12, mean age 22. 4 years). The scouis were performed with 5-ram section thickness from posterior margin of sphenoid sinus to anterior margin of posterior ethmoid and then with 3 mm thickness from anterior margin of posterior ethmoid to anterior margin of frontal sinus. The artatomic variations included nasoseptal deviation, concha bullosa, Hailer cells, Agger nasi cells, etc. RESULTS: The anatomic variations were demonstrated in 71 our of 82 symptomatic patients(86. 5%), whereas they were seen 26 of 88 patients(29. 5%) in control group. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that there is a possible causal relationship between anatomic variations and symptomas. Even though without accompaning mucosal abnormalities, anatomic variations could contribute simply to its symptomas. ^natomic variants may obstruct or narrow the airway, leading to turbulating air flow or interrupting ucociliary movement, and finally may produce a series os symptoms.
Facial Bones ; Frontal Sinus ; Humans ; Incidence ; Sinusitis ; Sphenoid Sinus

Local anesthesia for arthroscopic procedure of the knee is an increasinglv popular technique that avoids the use of general anesthesia and the associated risks of respiratory depression, aspiration, and postoperative sedation. Many authors, for example McGinty etc., Martin, Yoshiya etc., advocated local anesthesia as safe and efficient method for arthroscopic procedures of the knee. We performed arthoroscopy of the knee under local anesthesia on 150 patients for diagnostic and operative purposes between January l993 and December l996. The technique of local anesthesia that we used was that 20cc of 0.5%; bupivacaine with I:200,000 epinephrine was injected into superolateral portal of the knee joint and additional 10-20cc ot 1% lidocaine into the arthroscopic portals. Pnevmatic tourniquet wa, not applied in all cases. We analysed the 150 cases and the results were as follows; The diagnostic arthroscopy was performed in 50 cases and the operative arthroscopy was in 100 cases. The duration ot local anethesia was from 4 hours to 12 hours, with an average of 6 hours. In 35 cases arthroscopy was performed as outpatient procedure and average hospital stay excluding other problem was 5 days. No complication related to systemic toxicity by local anesthetics was observed. Conclusively arthroscopy of the knee under local anesthesia is safe and effective procedure to avoid the risks of general anesthesia but patients selection is very important.
Anesthesia, General ; Anesthesia, Local* ; Anesthetics, Local ; Arthroscopy* ; Bupivacaine ; Epinephrine ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Knee* ; Length of Stay ; Lidocaine ; Outpatients ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Tourniquets

No abstract available.
Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells* ; Bone Marrow* ; Cyclosporine* ; Mice*

A total of 73 enucleated eyeballs is reviewed and analyzed clinicopthologically. These eyeballs were selected among the enucleated spceimens that had been removed at the Yeungnam University Hospital during a period of 10 years beginning from 1983 to 1992. Following results were obtained. 1) When the eyeballs were classified according to me direct cause of removal, the neoplasm was the most common single cause accounting for 26 cases(35.6%) out of 73 cases, followed by phthisis bulbi l6 cases(21.9%), trauma 10 cases(13.7%), glaucoma 8 cases(10.9%), inflammation 5 cases(6.8%), staphyloma 4 cases(5.5%), retinal detachment 1 cases(1.4%), Coat's disease 1 cases(1.4%), corneal disease 1 cases(1.4%) and choroidal hemorrhage 1 cases(1.4%). 2) 39 cases(53.4%) were male and 34(46.6%) were female. 23 cases(31.5%) were below 10 years of age, which was the highest rate. 3) The neoplastic lesion included retinoblastoma 20 cases(76.9%) in 26 neoplasms, malignant melanoma 4 cases(15.3%), hemagioblastoma of optic disc 1 cases(3.9%), adenocarcinoma of Meibomian gland 1 cases(3.9%). 4) Retinoblastoma was the commonest intraocular tumor accounting for 20 out of 26 cases, In growth pattern, 80.0% of the tumor grew endophtytically. True rosette were seen 60% of the retinoblastoma.
Female ; Male ; Humans ; Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: The pathophysiologies of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS) are epidural adhesion& fibrosis; arachnoiditis, neural encroachment, mechanical instability. Epidural adhesiolysis alleviate back pain through blocking the neural activity of scar area and decreasing the inflammation & edema. There are two methods of adhesiolysis, endoscopic & non-endoscopic adhesiolysis. Present study was aimed to compare the pain relief & side effects between two methods. METHODS: We investigated 86 post-laminectomy patients with low back pain and radiculopathy, who do not relieved with any kinds of conservative treatment. Nerve pathology was demonstrated and epidural fibrosis suspected or proved with MRI examination. Group I was consisted with non-endoscopic 41 patients, and Group II was endoscopic 45 patients. Evaluation included assessment of pain relief (visual analogue scale, VAS), rate of reprocedures and duration of pain relief (VAS < 5) at post-epidural adhesiolysis 2 week, and 1, 2, 6 months. We also looked for complication of adhesiolysis. RESULTS: Statistical analysis (t-test, chisquared test) demonstrated VAS & reprocedure rate was significantly low (P < 0.05) in group II at 6 month and duration of pain relief (VAS < 5) was more prolonged in group II. One patient in each groups complained skin eruption and pruritus, and one patient of group II was proved epidural abscess and one patient of group I complained headache. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic and non-endoscopic epidural adhesiolysis are effective and safe in patients, who was not relieved the symptoms with conservative treatment, but endoscopic epidural adhesiolysis is more recommendable because its more prolonged effect.
Arachnoid ; Arachnoiditis ; Back Pain ; Cicatrix ; Edema ; Epidural Abscess ; Failed Back Surgery Syndrome ; Fibrosis ; Headache ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Pathology ; Pruritus ; Radiculopathy ; Skin

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Angiotensin II* ; Angiotensins* ; Animals ; Endocrine System* ; Rats*