BACKGROUND: There has been a lot of changes in prehospital medical environment with development of EMSS(emergency medical service systems). Especially in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the patients could survive when they are moved to the hospitals earlier. The purpose of this research is to know the status of EMSS in Korea by analyzing CPR(cardiopulmonary resuscitation) outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients at 3 hospital in the western area of Seoul and Incheon. METHODS: From July 1997 to June 1998, we collected data about out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims at Ewha Womens University Mokdong Hospital, Catholic University Medical College St. Mary Hospital, and Kachon University Chung Ang Gil Hospital. We used same record form based on the 'Utstein Style'. RESULTS: CPR were performed in 265 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients at 3 hospitals. One hundred twelve(42.3%) patients recovered the spontaneous circulation at least once and eight(3.0%) patients discharged alive. One hundred ninety four(73.2%) patients died of medical causes, one hundred two(38.5%) cardiogenic and ninety two(34.7%) non-cardiogenic, and seventy(26.4%) patients died of traumatic causes. Initial EKG showed VT/VF(ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation) in thirty one(11.7%) patients, asystole in one hundred fifty one(57.0%) patients and other rhythms in eighty three(31.3%) patients. Among one hundred two cardiogenic cardiac arrest patients, two(2.0%) patients was discharged alive. CONCLUSION: Overall survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac angst patients was 3% which was poorer than that of the western country. The proportion of the cardiogenic cause was 3% which was only hart of the western country. VT/VF is relatively not common as a initial EKG rhythm. These differences might be due to difference in the prevalence pattern of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest as well as prematurity of the EMSS.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Incheon ; Korea ; Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest* ; Prevalence ; Seoul ; Survival Rate

PURPOSE: To report a case of endophthalmitis treated with surgical removal of the inflammatory endothelial plaque. CASE SUMMARY: A 61-year-old male was transferred to our clinic due to corneal laceration of the left eye. An emergency operation for the lacerated cornea was performed. After the operation, the patient had no specific symptoms for 8 months but then visited our clinic with sudden decreased visual acuity. On slit lamp examination, the patient had some chamber reactions. Anterior chamber reactions exacerbated after 2 months and the best corrected visual acuity was decreased from 1.0 to 0.08. An inflammatory corneal endothelial plaque and endothelial precipitates had developed. The posterior segment was not visualized due to the severe anterior chamber inflammatory reaction. No growth was observed on bacterial or fungal cultures. However, administration of eye drops and oral voriconazole were initiated based on a clinical impression suspicious of fungal infection. Despite the treatment, the infection did not respond. Voriconazole was then directly injected into the vitreous and anterior chamber. Although the patient's best corrected visual acuity slightly improved, the inflammatory reactions of the anterior chamber and vitreous did not. The inflammatory endothelial plaque on the patient's cornea was then surgically removed and the best corrected visual acuity improved to 1.0. Mycelium was detected on the KOH smear of the endothelial plaque. There were no further inflammatory reactions in the anterior chamber or vitreous after surgical removal of the endothelial plaque.
Anterior Chamber ; Cornea ; Emergencies ; Endophthalmitis ; Endothelium, Corneal ; Eye ; Humans ; Lacerations ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycelium ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Pyrimidines ; Triazoles ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: To report a case of subconjunctival foreign body migration in both eyes after collagen-containing filler injection. CASE SUMMARY: A 51-year-old female, who had been treated with collagen-containing filler in her eyelid, nose, and forehead for cosmetic complaints four months earlier, presented to our clinic with decreased visual acuity and foreign body sensation in both eyes. Slit lamp examination revealed moderate nucleosclerosis and subcapsular opacity in her crystalline lens, in addition to scattered subconjunctival foreign body infiltration in both eyes. Cataract extraction with posterior chamber lens implantation was performed, and the subconjunctival foreign body was also partially removed. Biopsy of the remaining foreign body was performed, and examination revealed foreign material and multivacuolated cells in the conjunctiva. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians and patients should be aware of the risk of migration of collagen-containing filler inject at or near the eyelid, to the eyeball, including the conjunctiva.
Biopsy ; Cataract Extraction ; Collagen ; Conjunctiva ; Cosmetics ; Eye ; Eyelids ; Female ; Forehead ; Foreign Bodies ; Foreign-Body Migration ; Humans ; Lens, Crystalline ; Middle Aged ; Nose ; Sensation ; Visual Acuity

Most foreign bodies in the lower genitourinary tract are self-inserted through the urethra for masturbation. It can be diagnosed by clinical histories and physical examinations of the patient, endoscopy and radiologic evaluations. Extraction should be tailored as the surgery, endoscopic manipulation and dissolution according to the nature of the foreign body and should minimize bladder and urethral injury. We report a case of a long wire in the bladder and urethra with brief review of literatures.
Endoscopy ; Foreign Bodies* ; Humans ; Masturbation ; Physical Examination ; Urethra* ; Urinary Bladder

Barley is not a rare dietary content in Asian food but very few cases of anaphylactic reactions to barley have been reported. Furthermore, most reports are in adult patients with allergic reactions to beer containing barley components or occupational asthmatics known as 'baker's asthma'. We present a case of 11-month old boy who experienced an episode of anaphylaxis with generalized urticaria, periorbital swelling, wheeze and dyspnea after eating baby food containing barley, chestnut, glutinous rice, nonglutinous rice, within 30 minutes. Laboratory tests demonstrated high total serum IgE (531 kU/L) and revealed high level of IgE sensitizations to wheat (64.3 kU/L), barley (35.2 kU/L), rice (1.39 kU/L). Using the IgE-immunoblot assay, 7, 14, 25, and 26 kDa of IgE binding bands were identified and high degree of IgE cross-reactivity between barley and wheat extracts were revealed using IgE-immunoblot inhibition and ELISA-inhibition tests in this case.
Adult ; Anaphylaxis ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Beer ; Dyspnea ; Eating ; Hordeum ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E ; Triticum ; Urticaria ; Weaning

The authors present a case of interstitial keratitis due to congenital syphilis in a 25-years old Korean army soldier, who had admitted to our Eye clinic at 2nd Feb. 68'. The patient may be present, such as interstitial keratitis, deafness and Hutchinson's teeth. Syphilitic interstitial keratitis is known as a rare case in recent time. A brief review of the related literatures is present.
Adult ; Deafness ; Humans ; Keratitis* ; Military Personnel ; Syphilis, Congenital*

Simple or unicameral bone cysts are metaphyseal lesions of long bones. They usually move away from the physiswith growth to become diaphyseal in location. Involvement of the physis and epiphysis by these cystic lesions isvery rare. This paper reports a case of simple bone cyst of the proximal humerus in a 11- year -old girl which wasshown by MR imaging to extend through the physis into the epiphysis.
Bone Cysts* ; Epiphyses* ; Female ; Humans ; Humerus* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

PURPOSE: To analyse the radiological findings of bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation (BPOP), a rare benign tumorous lesion with a high frequency of recurrence which frequently occurs around the short tubular bones of the hands and feet. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 1984 and 1998, 19 cases of BPOP were pathologically Proven, and in is of these, six men and nine women aged between 17 and 69(mean, 41) years, plain radiographs were available for analysis. We examined the location and size of lesions, and their relationship to adjacent bone. RESULTS: In all cases, trabecular bone formations were present. There were not separable from adjacent bones, which in all cases appeared normal. In nine of 15 cases margins were sharp, and in the remaining six they were irregular. Lesions were located around a phalanx of the hand (n=5), a metatarsal bone (n=3), a long bone (n=3), a phalanx of the foot (n=2), a metacarpal bone (n=1), and a metatarsophalangeal joint (n=1). Their average size was 2.5 x1.9cm, and in three of is cases the tumor recurred. CONCLUSIONS: BPOP showed a well-marginated mass of heterotopic mineral arising around short tubular bones. These findings were useful for diagnosis and differential diagnosis.
Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Foot ; Hand ; Humans ; Male ; Metatarsal Bones ; Metatarsophalangeal Joint ; Recurrence

OBJECTIVE: Gastric carcinoma is one of the most common cause of death in Korea with limited effectiveness of chemotherapy. Thymidylate synthase(TS) is a critical therapeutic target for the fluoropyrimidine cytotoxic drugs, that are the mainstay of the treatment for the advanced gastrointestinal malignancies. We assessed the relationship between the levels of TS expression and survival and effect of 5-fluorouracil based chemotherapy in gastric adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Thirty six patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent curative resection of stomach at Ewha Womans University Hospital were evaluated. TS protein expression in tumor tissues was assessed by standard immunohistochemical staining techniques with TS 106 monoclonal antibody. RESULTS: TS expression was high(3+) in 19 patients (52.8%) and low(< or =2+) in 17 patients(47.2%). Between these two groups, there was no significant difference in the histopathologic type or stage. Seventy-two point five percent of patients with low TS expression were disease free at 5 years compared with 58.2% of patients with high TS expression(p=0.31) and 73.7% of patients with low TS expression were alive at 5 years compared with 61.4% of patients with high TS expression(p=0.34). In patients with high TS expression, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival(OS) of patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy were longer than those of patients with surgery alone without significance(p=0.28, p=0.16). CONCLUSIONS: We could not confirm the association between the level of TS expression in tumor tissues and DFS and OS of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent curative resection. Further study with more cases as well as prospective study will be necessary for establishment of relationship between TS expression of tumor and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma
Adenocarcinoma* ; Cause of Death ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; Humans ; Korea ; Prognosis* ; Stomach ; Thymidylate Synthase*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A history of poor weight gain can often be elicited in young children with chronic upper airway obstruction resulting from adenotonsillar hypertrophy. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of growth disturbance and what effect, if any tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy has on subsequent growth in a group of children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects consisted of 78 patients with adenotonsillar hypertrophy who had been treated between March 1997 and September 1997 at the department of otolaryngology, Saint Benedict Hospital. Available preoperative data were collected including sex, age at surgery, tonsillar hypertrophy grade, presence of snoring and sleep apnea, preoperative weight, preoperative eating disorder, and URI frequency. RESULT: Many had improvements in growth after adenotonsil-lectomy. The improvement in growth appears to be obvious in chidren with eating disorder, snoring, and sleep apnea resulting from adenotonsillar hypertrophy. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that there exists a relationship beween adenotonsillar hypertrophy children and preoperative eating disorder, growth delay and snoring.
Adenoidectomy ; Airway Obstruction ; Child* ; Feeding and Eating Disorders ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Incidence ; Otolaryngology ; Saints ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; Snoring ; Tonsillectomy ; Weight Gain