To evaluate the effect of steroid and alpha adrenergic blockade in experimental spinal cord trauma, pathological change was observed after 500 gm-cm force was impacted on the exposed cord of the 30 Mongoreal adult dogs. The progression of the pathological changes was compared in time lag with the groups of steroid adminstered and phenoxybenzamine treatment. In the group of the spinal cord trauma without treatment, histopathological findings were classical evolution namely from the central hemorrhage and necrosis to peripheral involvement up to amorphous necrotic pattern of entire cord at 24 hours preparation. In the steroid therapy group after the trauma, the pathological changes were confined in the gray matter around and posterior portion of the central canal in all intervals. Moreover the edematous changes and hemorrhagic necrosis were far less severe than the group without treatment. Although the pathologic change was somewhat less severe in the group which received phenoxybenzamine prior to the trauma than the group administered phenoxybenzamine afterward, these group revealed much severe edema and hemorrhagic necrosis than steroid therapy group. The pathologic change, however, in the groups which received phenoxybenzamine was less severe than the group of the spinal cord trauma without treatment.
Adult ; Animals ; Dogs ; Edema ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Necrosis ; Phenoxybenzamine ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

From March 1985 to June 1997, 451 patients of spontaneous pneumothorax treated at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital were reviewed retrospectively. Most of the patients were male (male to female ratio, 8.2:1). The mean age of the primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) was 26.8 years, and that of secondary spontaneous pneumothorax (SSP) was 53.1 years. 330 out of 451 patients (73%) were PSP. The causes of the SSP were mostly pulmonary tuberculosis and COPD: 87 patients (72%), and 24 patients (19.2%), respectively. All the patient were treated by one of the following modalities: 1)rest and oxygen therapy in 42 patients, 2) closed thoracostomy in 208 patients, 3) thoracotomy in 156 patients, 4) VATS bullectomy in 45 patients. The mean duration of postoperative chest tube drainage was as following: thoracotomy 8.3 days, VATS bullectomy 4.7 days. For recent 3 consecutive years, VATS bullectomy has become the more frequently applied operative procedure than thoracotomy in the treatment of surgically indicated PSP, from 33% in 1994 to 78% in 1996. With the minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery being more prevalent, VATS bullectomy will be able to be the 1st choice of treatment not only for the recurrent pneumothoracies but also for the some selected cases of the 1st episode pneumothoracies. To verify this approach as clinically acceptable one in terms of cost-effectiveness, recurrence rate, etc, a large scale of multi-institutional clinical study will be needed in a sooner time.
Chest Tubes ; Drainage ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Oxygen ; Pneumothorax* ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Surgical Procedures, Operative ; Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted ; Thoracoscopy ; Thoracostomy ; Thoracotomy ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

BACKGROUND: Recently, many cardiac centers have been using aprotinin to reduce operative bleeding in cardiac operations using cardiopulmonary bypass. A variety of reports have confirmed the effectiveness of the drug in cardiac operations. In addition to the operations which could be considered to cause severe operative bleeding such as redo operation, long cardiopulmonary bypass operation and etc, the use of aprotinin is increasing in the field of primary cardiac operations. Varying doses of regimen have been introduced since the first report by Royston et al, and also various opinions on the effectiveness and safeness of the each regimen have been reported. We reviewed our own experience of the full dose aprotinin regimen(Hammersmith regimen) retrospectively. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From October 1994 to February 1998, 40 cases of cardiac operative patients were randomized into two groups: aprotinin group(20 patients) which received a full dose aprotinin regimen and control group(20 patients) which did not receive aprotinin. To evaluate the degree of bleeding decrease, we analysed and compared the amount of postoperative 6 hours and 24 hours bleeding in the each group. To confirm the renal dysfunction, we measured the postoperative creatinine level. RESULT: In the amount of postoperative 6 hours bleeding, a statistically significant bleeding decrease was demonstrated in the aprotinin group compared to the control group(aprotinin group: 186+/-40cc, control group:409+/-69cc, P=0.010). Similar result was observed in the postoperative 24 hours(aprotinin group:317+/-53cc, control group: 671+/-133cc, P=0.024). CONCLUSION: We concluded that full dose regimen of aprotinin can remarkably reduce postoperative bleeding in cardiac operations without significant renal dysfunctions.
Adult* ; Aprotinin* ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass ; Creatinine ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Thoracic Surgery

We have experienced 19 patients of the cerebral arteriovenous malformation with subarachnoid hemorrhage, who were admitted to the Presbyterian Hospital, Daegu from January 1966 to July 1968, and to the Catholic Medical Center, Seoul from August 1968 to August 1971. All of the patients, who have the cerebral arteriovenous malformation, were proved by cerebral angiography. Since the site of lesions were considered to have close relation to the neurologic deficit and the result of surgery, various analysis of the clinical manifestations and the cerebral angiographic findings were attempted. Of the 19 patients, surgery was performed on 12 patients and its results were analyzed correlating to various types of surgical procedure. Following are the results. 1. From January 1966 to August 1971, there were 100 cases of cerebral vascular anomalies which were proved by cerebral angiography. Among the 100 cases, there were 71 intracranial aneurysms, 19 cerebral arteriovenous malformations, one cavernous angioma, 2 telangiectasis, 5 cerebral rete mirabile, and s Sturge Weber-Dimitris disease. The ratio of arteriovenous malformatons to aneurysms was 1: 3.7. 2. Age distribution of the bleeding arteriovenous malformations was ranged from 8 to 54, and 42 per cent of them were in the third decade. 73 percent of the group had bleeding from the cerebral arteriovenous malformation before the age of 40. The ratio of male to female was 1.9:1. 3. The parietal region was most commonly involved by the malformations. There were 8 parietal lesion, 4 temoroparietal lesions, one temporal lesion, one occipital lesion, and one tela chorioidea lesion. Simultaneous involvement of the both hemispheres occurred in one case. In lesions involving the cerebral hemisphere, there was a predominance of the left side. 4. In the past history, convulsive seizure was recorded in two cases and recurrent hemorrhages were reported in two. One patient was recorded to have suffered fourth hemorrhage and the other have sufferd third hemorrhge. 5. Meningeal irritation signs were most frequently observed in bleeding arteriovenous malformations. The incidence of weakness of extremities was higher in lesions involving the parietal area. Unconsciousness was occurred in 6 patients at the onset of symptom, of which transient loss of consciousness was seen in 3 patients. Transient hypertension at the onset was observed in two patients. 6. The feeding arteries of the malformations were most frequently seen from the middle cerebral artery and the draining veins from the malformations were into the superior sagittal sinus and internal cerebral vein in many cases. It was evident that the carotid artery of the sites of arteriovenous malformations was markedly dilated in 5 patients. 7. Ligation of the vessels feeding the arteriovenous malformations was carried out in 8 patients. One patient had neurologic deficit after the operation. Evacuation of intracerebral hematoma, resection of the anomaly or carotid ligation were carried out in 4 patients. Of the 12 patients who underwent various types of surgery, there was one death after evacuation of a large intracereral hematoma. 8. In our opinion, the ligation of feeding artery a choice of procedure to reduce the incidence of rebleeding, if the resection of the lesion was considered to have operative risk by the location of malformations.
Age Distribution ; Aneurysm ; Arteries ; Arteriovenous Malformations ; Carotid Arteries ; Cerebral Angiography ; Cerebral Veins ; Cerebrum ; Daegu ; Extremities ; Female ; Hemangioma, Cavernous ; Hematoma ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations ; Ligation ; Male ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Protestantism ; Rabeprazole ; Seizures ; Seoul ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ; Superior Sagittal Sinus ; Telangiectasis ; Unconsciousness ; Veins

Cerebral rete mirabile is a unusual form of chronic cerebrovascular occlusive disease characterized usually by bilateral stenosis of distal internal carotid arteries and their vicinity, by a hazy network of collateral circulation at the base of brain called moyamoya vessels and clinically by recurring hemispheric ischemic attack in children. We have reported here 2 cases of cerebral rete mirabile in children and performed newly developed operative procedure which we think is an ideal surgical method for treatment of this disease in children and is compared with other surgical treatment.
Brain ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Child* ; Collateral Circulation ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Surgical Procedures, Operative

Angiomyxolipoma is a rare variant of lipoma and seven cases have been reported in the English literature. The reported cases mostly presented with a well-demarcated, asymptomatic, solitary, subcutaneous mass on the scalp or extremities. Histopathologic features of this tumor are characteristic and consist of the paucicellular myxoid areas and the mature fat tissue, with numerous thin, dilated blood vessels. The important histopathological differential diagnoses include myxoid spindle cell lipoma, myxoid lipoma, angiolipoma, angiomyolipoma, superficial angiomyxoma, myxoid liposarcoma and low-grade myxofibrosarcoma. We describe a 38-year-old man with multiple angiomyxolipoma on the gluteal area and the upper and lower extremities.
Adult ; Angiolipoma ; Angiomyolipoma ; Blood Vessels ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Extremities ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Liposarcoma, Myxoid ; Lower Extremity ; Myxoma ; Scalp

This experiment was performed to define the paricipation of a discrete hypothalamic neural structure in the genesis of pulmonary edema and the effect of alpha adrenergic blockade. Fifty adult cats weighing 2.5 to 4.0 Kg, were used in this study. The components of the pathophysiological systemic changes, lung weight, and histopathological changes of lung and hypothalamus were studied in groups of animals when intracranial pressure(ICP) was raised to 200 mmH2O of 300 mmH2O for 2 hours by intraventricular infusion with normal saline. The animals were divided into 5 groups : The normal control group was comprised in 10 normal cats. Control and phentolamine treated animal groups which had an elevated ICP of up 200 mmH2O consisted of 10 cats each. Control and phentolamine treated animal groups which had an elevated ICP of up to 300 mmH2O consisted of 10 cats each. The results obtained were as follows : 1) In the animal groups of elevated ICP to 200 mmH2O or 300 mmH2O, there were hemodynamic systemic changes which were neurogenically mediated and caused an immediate elevation in blood pressure of 30 mmHg to 60 mmHg. The hemodynamic data of the animals that had an elevated ICP of up to 300 mmH2O were significantly more deviated from normal control values than the 200 mmH2O ICP groups. The hemodynamic responses of the phentolamine treated animal with elevated ICP of up to 200 and 300 mmH2O were less deviated from normal control values. 2) The lung weights of the animals with an elevated ICP of up to 200 and 300 mmH2O were significantly heavier than the normal control value(p<0.05) and the lung weights of the animals with an elevated ICP of 300 mmH2O were significantly heavier than those with an ICP of 200 mmH2O(p<0.01). The lung weights of the phentolamine treated animal groups were significantly lighter than the control group but showed little increase in the lung weight when compared to the normal value. 3) By controlling the elevated ICP above 200 mmH2O in the experimental animals we have confirmed gross and microscopic appearances of hemorrhagic pulmonary edema. Histopathological changes of the phentolamine treated animals were significantly less sever than in the control groups. 4) By elevating ICP above 200 mmH2O in the experimental animals, we have confirmed discrete bilateral hemorrhagic spots of the anterior hypothalamus, preoptic region induced by increased intracranial pressure. Histopathological changes of the phentolamine treated animals with the elevated ICP were significantly less severe than of the control groups. 5) This experimental model may define the specific particification of the hypothalamus in the pathophysiological pathogenesis of neurogenic pulmonary edema. These results suggest that the lungs are directly affected by the intense sympathetic discharge evoked by release phenomenon from the sympathoinhibitory influence of the hypothalamus, and pulmonary edema was effectively eliminated by alpha adrenergic blockade.
Adult ; Animals ; Blood Pressure ; Cats* ; Edema* ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypothalamus ; Hypothalamus, Anterior ; Infusions, Intraventricular ; Intracranial Pressure ; Lung* ; Models, Theoretical ; Phentolamine* ; Pulmonary Edema ; Reference Values ; Weights and Measures

Primary pulmonary meningioma is an extremely rare disease. It is mostly benign and asymptomatic. This tumor shows the same cytohigstologic appearance as brain or spinal cord meninioma. It can be diagnosed as a primary pulmonary meningioma only if there is no evidence of metastasis from the brain or spinal cord meningioma. We experienced a case of primary pulmonary meningioma in a 60-year-old woman who had asymptomatic 2 cm-sized solitary pulmonary tumor in the right lower lobe. It is rather peripherally located. Fine needle aspiration cytology has suggested the possibility of either well-differentiated epithelial malignancy such as papillary adenocarcinoma or mucoepidermoid carcinoma or metastatic carcinoma such as from ductal carcinoma of the breast. Right lower lobectomy was performed. The tumor was bilobated and soild with yellowish color. pathologically it proved to be a primary pulmonary and solid with yellowish color. Pathologically it proved to be a primary pulmonary meningioma because there was no evidance of brain or spinal cord tumor. To the best of our knowledge this is the first case reported in Korea. We report this case with review of the literature.
Adenocarcinoma, Papillary ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Brain ; Breast ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Meningioma* ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Rare Diseases ; Spinal Cord ; Spinal Cord Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster is a common dermatologic disorder. However, there has been no reported study of herpes zoster in children exclusively in the Korean literature. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze epidemiological features and clinical characteristics of herpes zoster in children. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed by reviewing the medical records of 64 patients who were under 12 years old and who had herpes zoster. We searched for cases occurring during a 10-year-period from January 2000 to December 2009. We analyzed for age, gender, accompanying symptoms, dermatomal distribution, underlying disease, treatment and complications. RESULTS: Children under 12 years old account for 2.48% of all herpes zoster patients. The ratio of males to females is 1:1. The number of enrolled patients was increasing according to age (p=0.0004). The number (p=0.0009) and the proportion (p=0.0187) of pediatric patients has been increasing year by year. Underlying diseases were observed in 17.2%, and included asthma, atopic dermatitis, chronic sinusitis, epilepsy and tic disorder. There was no patient with immunocompression. Lesions of herpes zoster were most frequently found in the trigeminal dermatome (35.9%), followed by the thoracic (34.4%), cervical (14.1%), lumbar (9.4%), and sacral (4.7%) dermatomes, and multiple involvement (1.16%). Pain accompanying herpes zoster was reported in 54.7% and pruritus in 71.9%. Complications were observed in 14.1%; the most common one was eye involvement. CONCLUSION: The incidence of accompanying pain in children with herpes zoster is lower than in adults with this disease. However, the incidence of accompanying pruritus was higher in children than in adults. Postherpetic neuralgia did not developed in children.
Adult ; Asthma ; Child ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Epilepsy ; Eye ; Female ; Herpes Zoster ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Medical Records ; Neuralgia, Postherpetic ; Pruritus ; Retrospective Studies ; Sinusitis ; Tic Disorders

BACKGROUND: Pyogenic granuloma is a common vascular neoplasm of the skin and mucous membranes. However, few comprehensive studies are available on the clinical and histopathological characteristics of pyogenic granuloma. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical and histopathological characteristics of pyogenic granuloma. METHODS: Patients with pyogenic granuloma diagnosed clinically and histopathologically were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Fifty patients (17 males and 33 females) were enrolled, and the mean age of onset was 33.6 years old. The mean lesion size was 6.7 mm. Forty-eight patients had a solitary lesion, whereas two patients had multiple lesions on the skin and mucosa. The most common area for lesions was the head and neck followed by the hands, trunk, and lower extremities. Patient complained of easy bleeding, pain, tenderness, and pruritus. Dermoscopic findings of nine lesions showed patterns of a reddish homogenous area, white scaly collarette, white rail lines, and a hemorrhagic crust. Histopathological findings of all biopsy cases showed a lobular pattern of angiomatous tissue with numerous congested capillaries, a flattened epidermis, a well-formed epidermal collarette, and CD34-positive endothelial cells. Various treatment modalities including surgery and laser have been used, but lesions recurred following a single laser treatment with a pulsed dye laser or long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser. CONCLUSION: A correlation between clinicopathological and dermoscopic findings was useful for the differential diagnosis of other diseases mimicking pyogenic granuloma and to detect recurrence after treatment. Laser treatments were less invasive therapy, but the recurrence rate was higher than that of other surgical modalities when used alone. Additional prospective studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of the various treatment modalities.
Age of Onset ; Biopsy ; Capillaries ; Dermoscopy ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Endothelial Cells ; Epidermis ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Granuloma, Pyogenic ; Hand ; Head ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Lasers, Dye ; Lower Extremity ; Male ; Mucous Membrane ; Neck ; Pruritus ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Vascular Neoplasms