The suture techniques to anastomose successfully small vassels of 1mm in diameter were continuous suture and interrupted suture, and patency rate of them has been estabilished by orthopaedic surgeon. In 1962, Chase and Schwarz reported better results with interrupted suture than with a continuous suture, Firsching reported less time using with continuous suture than with interrupted suture, but no difference in flow rate, in 1984 Lilly reported that interrupted suture does no result in stenosis of venous end to end anastomoses by continuous suturing technique, Mao reported that there was no statically significant difference between two suture methods in patency rate. The authors have experimentally studied the patency rate and histopathological findings of two suture techniques in the 20 Newzealand white rabbit at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hanyang University Hospital and can be obtained the following results. l. In arterial patency, the interrupted suture and continuous suture were 100% in rate and patency rate in veins were 95% in interrupted suture and 75% in continuous suture. 2. Subintimal hyperplasia occured earlier in arteries than in veins and it may be due to the medial component of vessel. 3. In anastomoses of small vessel the accurate apposition of cut vessels edges decreased the thrombi formation of vessel.
Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Hyperplasia ; Monoamine Oxidase ; Suture Techniques ; Sutures ; Veins

No abstract available.
Lymphatic Diseases*

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was introduced into Korea in 1990 and has been rapidly replacing open cholecystectomy when the indications were met. In this study a medical utilization and technology was assessed on the selected hospitalized patients with cholelithiasis who underwent open or laparoscopic cholecystectomy from April 1, 1991 to March 31, 1994. The results are as follows. Despite the low reimbursement rate by the health insurance, the number of laparoscopic cases have been steadily increased. The post-operative days before health insurance coverage were significantly shortened from 8.4 days to 4.6 days. The preoperative days before health insurance coverage were significantly shorted from 8.4 days to 4.0 days. The total length-of-stays in the hospital were also significantly shortened from 15.2 days to 10.7 and 9.8 days in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The laparoscopic cholecystectomy showed low expenses in all aspects expect the average hospital charges per day. For the hospital to have cost containment, it is more effective if length-of-stay is shorter because of high daily inpatient hospital charge. The laparoscopic cholecystectomy also showed shortened anesthesia time and operation time compared with open cholecystectomy that were statistically significant. The mean anesthesia and operation time for open cholecystectomy were 113.2 and 90.2 minutes but those of laparoscopic cholecystectomy were 105.7 and 68.6 minutes. According to this study the laparoscopic cholecystectomy has reduced the medical expenditure and we recommend this procedure over open cholecystectomy. The further discussion on the different morbidity rate between two types of procedure is essential in providing quality medical care, and to educate specialist.
Anesthesia ; Cholecystectomy* ; Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic* ; Cholelithiasis ; Cost Control ; Health Expenditures ; Hospital Charges ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Specialization

No abstract available.
Humans

BACKGROUND: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important regulator of angiogenesis and vascular permeability. Increased serum VEGF concentrations (sVEGF) have been reported in various types of human cancer. In the current study, we assessed sVEGF to investigate the relationship between the sVEGF level and the prognosis of patients with lung cancer. METHODS: sVEGF was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 86 patients with lung cancer. Patients were divided into two groups according to 686 pg/mL of mean sVEGF (Low sVEGF group: sVEGF<686 pg/mL, n= 58; High sVEGF group: sVEGF>or=686 pg/mL, n=28). We analyzed the association of sVEGF according to the pathologic types and clinical staging, and compared the survival rates in two groups. RESULTS: There was no significant difference of sVEGF among the stages and pathologic types of lung cancer. And no difference was observed between overall survival rates of both groups regard to sVEGF (p=0.86). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that sVEGF may not be a good marker for prognosis of lung cancer, especially in the advanced cases.
Capillary Permeability ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Prognosis* ; Survival Rate ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

BACKGROUND: VEGF is an important factor for angiogenesis. Although many previous studies have reported an increased serum VEGF concentration in various malignant tumors, there are few studies on the relationship between serum VEGF concentration and its prognosis. This study investigated whether serum VEGF concentration is a prognostic indicator for lung cancer. METHODS: Using the ELISA kit, we measured the serum VEGF concentrations of 86 patients diagnosed with lung cancer on histologic examination. With a cut-off value of 686 pg/mL, the patients were classified as low-concentration (< 686 pg/mL, n=58) or high-concentration (> or=686 pg/mL, n=28) based on their mean serum VEGF concentration values to compare survival rates, and serum VEGF concentrations for different histologic types and stages. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in serum VEGF concentration based on stage and histologic type between the two groups. Moreover, there was no significant difference in survival rate between the high-concentration and low-concentration groups (p=0.86). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that serum VEGF concentration is not associated with the prognosis of lung cancer.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/*blood/*mortality/pathology ; Female ; Human ; Lung Neoplasms/*blood/*mortality/pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Survival Rate ; Tumor Markers, Biological/*blood ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/*blood

No abstract available.
Blood Glucose ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Humans

PURPOSE: Although adjuvant chemotherapy after resection of gastric cancer is a popular practice in Korea, there are still controversies about the effectiveness of the treatment. The fact that the relatively less effective drugs have been used and the rarity of large-scaled controlled studies may be partially responsible for the controversies. FP(5-FU, Cisplatin) combination is one of the most active regimen against advanced gastric cancer, consistently showing a response rate of 50~60%. We tried the FP chemotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for high-risk patients after curative resection of gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 1992 and June 1996, 35 patients with completely resected high-risk gastric cancer(postoperative stage III or IV except thase with M1) received six courses of FP chemotherapy. Endpoints were toxicities of treatment, relapse free survival, and overall survival. RESULTS: With a median follow-up time of 17.1 months, Kaplan-Meier estimates of 2-year overall survival was 63.3% and relapse free survival estimates was 49%. There were no differences between stage III and IV patients in terms of overall survival or relapse free survival. Hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities were tolerable for most of the patients. CONCLUSION: Postoperative FP combination chemotherapy was tolerable for patients with high-risk(stage III and IV) gastric cancer. It is too early to determine the long term survival rates for this patients, but 2-year overall and relapse free survival were comparable to that of historical non-cisplatin containing regimens. Randomized phase III studies are warranted.
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cisplatin* ; Drug Therapy* ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Fluorouracil* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Recurrence ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate

No abstract available.
Amniocentesis* ; Cytogenetics* ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second*

BACKGROUND: It is well known that Korea is one of endemic area for viral hepatitis B(HBV). The prevalence of HBsAg in general population has been reported as high as 5-12% before vaccination plan began in 1983, 7-9% after vaccination for HBV in 80th, 3-6% in 90th. The hepatitis C(HCV) is now known to be the chief cause of tranfusion-associated non-A, non-B hepatitis. As there are not sufficient information about the prevalence rate of HBV, HCV in 90th, this study was designed to investigate the positive rate of HBV, HCV and the mean prevalence rate of HBV, HCV by sex, age, year in 90th. METHODS: From January 1993 to October 1998, HBsAg and HBsAb were checked by Radioimmunoassay technique in 132,367 adults. and from January 1995 to October 1998, anti-HCV were checked by the same technique in 86,384 adults. We have studied the positive rate of HBsAg, HBsAb and anti-HCV, which were checked by sex, age, year. Then, we have studied coinfection rate of HBV and HCV, association of blood type with HBV and HCV. RESULTS: The positive rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV were 6.0% and 0.46%. The sex distribution of positive HBsAg showed higher in male than female. The sex distribution of positive anti-HCV showed higher in female than male. HBsAg positive rate decreased from 6.5% of 1993 to 5.2% of 1998 and anti-HCV positive rate decreased from 0.6% of 1995 to 0.2% of 1998. The positive rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV steadily decreased by years from 1993 through 1998 and from 1995 through 1998, respectively. The age distribution of positive HBsAg was higher in 4th, 5th decade and anti-HCV in 7th decade. The positive rate of anti-HCV steadily increased with age. The positive rate of HBsAb was 63.9%. Positive rate of later group(1996-1998) was lower when compared with positive rate of first half(1993-1995). In the group of positive HBsAg, the positive rate of anti-HCV was 0.35% but, in the group of negative HBsAg, the positive rate of anti-HCV was 0.41%. So, the relationship between the positive rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV were not noted. The positive rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV were not differ regarding to ABO blood type. CONCLUSIONS: The positive rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV steadily decreased by years. This suggest that Government continues effort for control of HBV such as HBV vaccination and for control of transfusion associated HCV infection Also, this suggest that general population increase concerns in sanitation and public health.
Adult* ; Age Distribution ; Coinfection ; Female ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Radioimmunoassay ; Sanitation ; Sex Distribution ; Vaccination