A 58-year-old man with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus developed rhinocerebral mucormycosis. The infection progressed to intracranial extension despite more than 5 weeks of treatment with amphotericin B. The patient then received oral posaconazole, 800 mg/d, in divided doses for 6 months. Salvage treatment with the new azole antifungal posaconazole resulted in dramatic clinical improvement as early as 1 week after the initiation of therapy. Oral posaconazole continued through 24 weeks of treatment, with marked clinical, mycological, and radiological improvements and no adverse events. Here we review the medical literature on rhinocerebral mucormycosis, which is a rapidly progressive and often fatal infection. The treatment of choice is amphotericin B, which failed in our patient. Our case report suggests that posaconazole appears to be a well tolerated and effective salvage treatment option for rhinocerebral mucormycosis, including disseminated disease.
Amphotericin B ; Danazol ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Mucormycosis ; Salvage Therapy ; Triazoles

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice for cholelithiasis. It is used more commonly than open cholecystectomy because of the convenience of a short hospital stay and earlier return to work, and for aesthetic reasons. Nevertheless, there are complications that are encountered more frequently than in open cholecystectomy due to the smaller operating window. Here, we report the case of a 73-year-old woman who underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy 15 years earlier and now presented with abrupt abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed a past cholecystectomy with an abscess pocket abutting the abdominal wall, with a stone inside it. Incision and drainage were done and the stone was removed laparoscopically. This case shows that late complications, such as abscess formation due to lost GB stones during laparoscopic cholecystectomy, can occur, even after 15 years.
Abdominal Abscess ; Abdominal Pain ; Abdominal Wall ; Abscess ; Aged ; Cholecystectomy ; Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic ; Cholelithiasis ; Drainage ; Female ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Return to Work

Thermal ablation using radiofrequency is a new, minimally invasive modality employed as an alternative to surgery in patients with benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers. The Task Force Committee of the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology has developed recommendations for the optimal use of radiofrequency ablation for thyroid nodules. These recommendations are based on a comprehensive analysis of the current literature, the results of multicenter studies, and expert consensus.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Catheter Ablation/*methods ; Consensus ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/parasitology/surgery ; Patient Safety ; Radio Waves ; Republic of Korea ; Thyroid Neoplasms/pathology/*surgery ; Thyroid Nodule/pathology/*surgery ; Ultrasonography, Interventional

Radiofrequency ablation is a new non-surgical treatment modality for patients with benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers. The Task Force Committee of the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology has developed recommendations for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers using radiofrequency ablation. These recommendations are based on evidence from the current literature and expert consensus.
Advisory Committees ; Consensus ; Ethanol ; Humans ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Nodule

The purpose of this study was to establish a prediction rule for severe illness in adult patients hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009. At the time of initial presentation, the baseline characteristics of those with severe illness (i.e., admission to intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, or death) were compared to those of patients with non-severe illnesses. A total of 709 adults hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 were included: 75 severe and 634 non-severe cases. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that altered mental status, hypoxia (PaO2/FiO2 < or = 250), bilateral lung infiltration, and old age (> or = 65 yr) were independent risk factors for severe cases (all P < 0.001). The area under the ROC curve (0.834 [95% CI, 0.778-0.890]) of the number of risk factors were not significantly different with that of APACHE II score (0.840 [95% CI, 0.790-0.891]) (P = 0.496). The presence of > or = 2 risk factors had a higher sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value than an APACHE II score of > or = 13. As a prediction rule, the presence of > or = 2 these risk factors is a powerful and easy-to-use predictor of the severity in adult patients hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009.
APACHE ; Adult ; Aged ; Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/*isolation & purification ; Influenza, Human/drug therapy/*epidemiology/mortality ; Intensive Care Units ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pandemics ; Predictive Value of Tests ; ROC Curve ; Respiration, Artificial ; Risk Factors ; Severity of Illness Index

PURPOSE: We investigated the clinical outcome of bone marrow (BM) involvement in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who received rituximab-based therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 567 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL treated with rituximab-CHOP (RCHOP) between November 2001 and March 2010 were included in the current study. All of the patients underwent a BM study at the initial staging and the clinical characteristics and prognosis of these patients with or without BM involvement were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: The total cohort included 567 patients. The overall incidence of BM involvement was 8.5%. With a median follow-up duration of 33.2 months (range, 0.1 to 80.7 months) for patients who were alive at the last follow-up, the five-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) rate in patients without BM involvement (76.3% and 67.5%, p<0.001) was statistically higher than that in patients with BM involvement (44.3% and 40.1%, p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, among total patients, BM involvement showed a significant association with OS and EFS. In univariate and multivariate analyses, even among stage IV patients, a significant association with worse EFS was observed in the BM involvement group. CONCLUSION: BM involvement at diagnosis affected the survival of patients with DLBCL who received RCHOP. Although use of RCHOP can result in significant improvement of the therapeutic effect of DLBCL, BM involvement is still a negative prognostic factor of DLBCL patients in the era of rituximab.
Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived ; B-Lymphocytes ; Bone Marrow ; Cohort Studies ; Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis ; Rituximab