The appendiceal mucocele is very rare disease of 0.2% incidence. About 24% of patients are asymptomatic and symptomatic patients present with pain in the right lower quadrant of abdomen in 64%, plapable maas in the right lower quadrant of abdomen in 50%, and rarely, melena, hematochezia, anemia, diarrhea, malaise, and abdominal distension. The gastrointestinal bleeding may be presented in the patient with intussusception, but the massive bleeding is generally absent. We report a case of appendiceal mucocele accompanying with gastrointestinal bleeding and review of literature.
Abdomen ; Anemia ; Diarrhea ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intussusception ; Melena ; Mucocele* ; Rare Diseases

Primary gastrointestinal lymphoma primarily confined to gastrointestinal tract is relatively rare diaease. Although the lymphoma primarily involved colorectum or small bowel was commonly reported than primary gastric lymphoma in Korea, the concurrent primary lymphoma of colon and small bowel is very rare in reported cases. We report a case of combined primary malignant lymphoma of the jejunum and cecum, who was admitted due to melena and anemia. She had right hemicolectomy and end-to-side ileotransverse colostomy at 2 months ago, due to primary colon lymphoma. The laparotomy was performed and identified hard, 2 x 3 cm sized masses on distal 25 cm, 80 cm and 150 cm from the Treitz ligament. The histology of these small ma showed histiocytic lymphoma as same as cecal specimen. In general, the small bowel lymphoma shaws poor prognosis than gastric or colorectal lymphoma due to diffieulty in diagnosis and late symptoms, but this problem could be resolved through the knowledge about primary gastrointestinal lymphoma and the development of diagnostic methods.
Anemia ; Cecum ; Colon* ; Colostomy ; Diagnosis ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Jejunum ; Korea ; Laparotomy ; Ligaments ; Lymphoma* ; Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse ; Melena ; Prognosis

BACKGROUND: Most of the studies conducted have investigated the beneficial effects of ischemic preconditioning on normothermic myocardial ischemia. However, the effect of preconditioning could be attenuated through the use of multidose cold cardioplegia as practiced in contemporary clinical heart surgical procedures. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preconditioning improves postischemic cardiac function in a model of 25 degrees C moderate hypothermic ischemic heart induced by cold cardioplegia in isolated rat hearts. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The isolated Sprague-Dawley rat hearts were randomly assigned to four groups. All hearts were perfused at 37 degrees C for 20 minutes with Krebs-Henseleit solution before the baseline hemodynamic data were obtained. Group 1 consisted of preconditioned hearts that received 3 minutes of global ischemic preconditioning at 37 degrees C, followed by 5 minutes of reperfusion before 120 minutes of cardioplegic arrest (n=6). Cold (4 degrees C) St. Thomas Hospital cardioplegia solution was infused to induce cardioplegic arrest. Maintaining the heart at 25 degrees C, infusion of the cardioplegia solution was repeated every 20 minutes throughout the 120 minutes of ischemic period. Group 2 consisted of control hearts that underwent no manipulations between the periods of equilibrium and 120 minutes of cardioplegic arrest (n=6). After 2 hours of cardioplegic arrest, Krebs solution was infused and hemodynamic data were obtained for 30 minutes (group 1, 2: cold cardioplegia group). Group 3 received two episodes of ischemic preconditioning before 30 min of 37 degrees C normothermic ischemia and 30 minutes of reperfusion (n=6). Group 4 served as ischemic controls for group 3 (group 3, 4: warm ischemia group). RESULT: Preconditioning did not influence parameters such as left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), rate-pressure product (RPP) and left ventricular dp/dt (LV dp/dt) in the cold cardioplegia group. (p=NS) However, preconditioning before warm ischemia attenuated the ischemia induced cardiac dysfunction, improving the LVSP, LVEDP, RPP, and LVdp/dt. Less leakage of CPK and LDH were observed in the ischemic preconditioning group compared to the control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Ischemic preconditioning improved postischemic cardiac function after warm ischemia, but did not protect cold cardioplegic hearts.
Animals ; Blood Pressure ; Cardiac Surgical Procedures ; Heart Arrest, Induced* ; Heart* ; Hemodynamics ; Ischemia ; Ischemic Preconditioning* ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion ; Warm Ischemia

Pulmonary resection often leaves a pleural space problem that can cause prolonged air leaks. We describe a patient with lung cancer undergoing a right middle and lower lobectomy complicated by prolonged air leaks. He had a history of pulmonary tuberculosis and COPD. Artificial pneumoperitoneum was made by instillation of air via a small central vein catheter into the left lower quadrant on postoperative day(POD) 21. The air leak ceased on POD 23 and the chest tube was removed on POD 25.
Catheters ; Chest Tubes ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Pneumoperitoneum ; Pneumoperitoneum, Artificial* ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; Veins

Relapsing polychondritis is a rare inflammatory disorder affecting the cartilaginous structures throughout the body. Although there is no pathognomonic laboratory tests, clinical features, when coupled with histopathologic findings, enable one to make a diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis. A 26-year-old man presented with purplish, swollen, and tender auricles and injected eyes. His symptoms had developed eight months ago and fluctuated irrespective of various medications such as corticosteroids and antibiotics. Histopathologic examination revealed loss of basophilic staining of the cartilage with some dissolution of its structures. Treatment was initiated with dapsone, However, the remission was too immediate to be considered as a effect of dapsone.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Adult ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Basophils ; Cartilage ; Dapsone ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Polychondritis, Relapsing*

No abstract available.
Osteotomy*

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of newborn (SCFNN) is a rare disease. Characteristically, full-term infants with associated perinatal problems such as hypoxia, hypothermia, and obstetric trauma are affected in the first week of life. We report a case of SCFNN, which presented as an erythematous subcutaneous mass on the back of a male neonate who suffered from meconium aspiration pneumonia with neonatal sepsis.
Anoxia ; Humans ; Hypothermia ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn* ; Male ; Meconium Aspiration Syndrome* ; Meconium* ; Necrosis* ; Pneumonia ; Rare Diseases ; Sepsis ; Subcutaneous Fat*

Pulmonary endometriosis is an uncommon disease, and usually detected by catamenial hemoptysis. Treatment of pulmonary endometriosis may be medical(hormone therapy) or surgical. Since hormone therapy may cause sterility, most of patients who wish to conceive usually choose surgical resection. Although video-assisted thoracic surgery(VATS) has advantage of small scar, reducing postoperative pain and shortening hospital stay, it is not easy to locate the precise lesion and resect whole endometrial tissue not to be remained. 17 years old female with catamenial hemoptysis was treated sucessfully with a partial resection of the lung using VATS, and has been asymptomatic for 7months since the operation.
Adolescent ; Cicatrix ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Hemoptysis ; Humans ; Infertility ; Length of Stay ; Lung ; Pain, Postoperative ; Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted*

The rectum is a unique visceral organ, of which afferents are not so obvious. In anorectal surgery ablating the rectum and/or perirectal structure, this issue comes with significant meaning about whether to preserve patient's normal defecatory function, or not. So we planned this study to evaluate which nervous system concerns the afferents from the rectum. METHODS: We recorded cerebral evoked potential (EPs) in 16 healthy male subjects after electrical and mechanical stimulation of the rectum, and compared their waving patterns regarding latencies and amplitudes of each peak with those occuring after electrical stimulation of the pudendal nerve. RESULTS: The EPs after electrical stimulation of the rectum showed distinctly different waving patterns in comparison to those after electrical stimulation of the pudendal nerve. But the EPs after mechanical stimulation of the rectum showed very similar waving patterns with those after electrical stimulation of the pudendal nerve. CONCLUSIONS: Rectal afferents of mechanical stimulation seem to be somatosensory, but those of electrical stimulation seem visceral. In that sense, sensory receptors of mechanical stimulation may lie in the perirectal structure, such as pelvic floor muscle and those of electrical stimulation lie in the rectum, itself.
Electric Stimulation ; Evoked Potentials* ; Humans ; Male ; Nervous System ; Pelvic Floor ; Pudendal Nerve ; Rectum ; Sensory Receptor Cells

Many investigators have reported that collagen gel contraction reflects the mechanism of wound contraction. In 1995, Tsai et al. reported that hypertrophic scar-derived fibroblasts in a connective tissue model possessed the greatest contraction potency when compared with those of normal skin and normal oral mucosa-derived CTMs. In this study, we studied the effect of collagen gel contraction by growth factors such as epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, transforming growth factor-bata1, and transforming growth factor-bata3, Skin fibroblasts used in this study were obtained from the explant of rat skin culture. Fibroblasts were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. Growth factors were added per FPCL in the desired concentrations and we measured the collagen gel diameters in growth factor-treated FPCL on day 1,2,3, and 4 respectively after starting incubation. We examined the effects of EGF, PDGF, TGF-bata1, TGF-bata3 and the effects of combinations of TGF-bata1 + EGF, TGF-bata1 + PDGF, and TGF-bata1 + TGF-bata3 to contract a collagen gel. EGF has little influence on collagen gel contraction. TGF-bata1 and TGF-bata3 increase the collagen contraction. TGF-bata1 enhanced the contractility of collagen gel according to the concentrations. While TGF-bata3 alone had stimulatory contraction effects at low dose, high doses of TGF-bata3 decreased the potency of collagen gel contraction. A combination of TGF-bata1 and EGF minimally decrease TGF-bata1 activity. A combination of TGF-bata1and PDGF had an effect similar to TGF-bata1 activity. A combination of TGF-bata1 and TGF-bata3 decreased TGF-bata1 activity. According to reports that FPCL contraction is equivalent to the process of wound contraction, growth factors which enhance gel contraction may be related to wound contraction and wound healing. TGF-bata1 is reported to enhance scar formation in fetal wound. EGF accelerates wound healing and inhibits the promotion of hypertrophic scar formation. Compared to the effect of collagen gel contraction in this study, the combination of TGF-bata1 and TGF-bata3 that inhibited the promotion of collagen gel contraction are thought to diminish the formation of scar tissue. As well, EGF that has not enhanced collagen gel contraction is thought to diminish the production of scar tissue. We will study the interactive effects of TGF-bata3, EGF and TGF-bata1 on the contraction of collagen gels in the future.
Animals ; Cicatrix ; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic ; Collagen* ; Connective Tissue ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Fibroblasts ; Gels ; Humans ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins* ; Platelet-Derived Growth Factor ; Rats ; Research Personnel ; Skin ; Wound Healing ; Wounds and Injuries*