No abstract available.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

No abstract available.
Hydronephrosis*

After Kilian first described apondylolisthesis in 1854, there has been diverse opinions over the surgical treatment of the spondylolisthesis: in situ fusion vs. reduction and fusion, PLIF vs. PLF, and instrumentation vs. non-instrumentation. The advantages of the instrumentation are rigid fixation, better union rate of grafted bone and early rehabilitation after surgery. The disadvantages are long operation time and increased chance of the wound infection. The purpose of this retrospective study is to review the clinical results and fusion rate of 41 patients who were treated with decompression and posterolateral fusion in situ with autograft with or without instrumentation from January 1986 to June 1992. 1. Among 41 patients, 20 patients were degenerative type and 21 were isthmic type, and most commonly involved level was L4-5(46.4%). 2. Fusion was obtained in all patients. 3. Clinically 11 of 15 patients(73.4%) showed excellent or good results in instrumentation group, and 19 of 26 patients(73.0%) showed excellent or good results in non-instrumentation group. 4. Postoperative complications developed in two cases(13.3%) with instrumentation and five cases(19.2%) without instrumentation. Comparing with the non-instrumentation, we could not find great advantage of the instrumentation on the clinical results or union rate, although instrumentation showed a little better result.
Autografts ; Decompression ; Humans ; Postoperative Complications ; Rehabilitation ; Retrospective Studies ; Spondylolisthesis ; Transplants ; Wound Infection

The purpose of this study is to estimate cesarean section rate in Korea and analyze the socioeconomic variables and health resources which affect regional variation in the rate. Samples were drawn from the record of vaginal and cesarean section deliveries based upon insurance claim bills which have been submitted to the National Federation of Medical Insurance for the first three months, January through March, 1991. The results are obtained as follows: It was found that, cesarean section rate was increasing rapidly up to 23.1% in 1991. Cesarean section per 10 thousand insured people was 4.8 and the number of cesarean section per 10 thousand insured eligible(15-49 years old) female was 7.6. The fee for normal delivery was 109,489 won and that for cesarean section was 390,024 won. The average days of hospitalization in normal delivery was 2.3 days, and those in cesarean section was 7.6 days. On the average cesarean section has a longer of stay as much as by 4.3 days and cost 3.6 times more than normal deliveries. Cesarean section rates vary among medical facilities: 19.8% at clinics 37.6% in small-scale hospitals, and 29.1% in general hospitals. The regional variation of cesarean section rates was also fairly prominent. The South Cheju Gun has the highest rate of cesarean section, 56.2%. Meanwhile no cesarean section cases has been reported in Sunchang Gun during the period of this study. The variation is noted among provinces. The rate for Cheju province has been 3.4 times higher than that for Chunnam. The number of cesarean section per 10 thousand insured people vary greatly among regions, too. This study has found that there exists significant regional variations among various geographic units in terms of average length of stay, average cost, number of obsretricians and number of beds. Multiple regression analysis was done to identify factors explaining the regional variance of various cesarean section rates: In the urban areas, no significant explaining variables were noted except the number of beds for the dependent variable of cesarean section cases per 10 thousand insured eligible females. The smaller the number of bed, the more cases of cesarean section was noted for an urban area. The is mostly because the rate of cesarean section is higher in medium-size hospitals than in large general hospitals. In the rural areas, the factor of education has been found significant for all three dependent variables. The higher the educational level, the rate of cesarean section is most likely to rise. An income variable measured by the amount of monthly insurance contribution has been identified a powerful predictor in explaining the variance of cesarean section rates. The same has been noted for the number of obstetricians. Similar findings are observed for the country as a whole. The income level has been found as the most powerful explaining factor in the regional variance of cesarean section rates. In general the rate is higher in the urban areas, and lower in the area with more small hospitals. As this is the initial attempt to identify the factors relevant to the regional difference in the rates of cesarean section, more elaborated study is urgently required.
Cesarean Section* ; Education ; Fees and Charges ; Female ; Health Resources ; Hospitalization ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Insurance ; Jeju-do ; Korea* ; Length of Stay ; Pregnancy

The purpose of this study is to estimate the minimum optimal scale(MOS) of the self-employed health insurance associations. Considering the high proportion of operating expenses, the author have selected 254 regional health insurance associations from the 1990 Finance Report of the self-employed health insurance programs. both a quadratic function and a hyperbolic function were chosen for the analysis. The dependent variables are the average maintenance cost per insured person and per household, and the independent variables are the number of insured members and of household. The minimum optimal scale was obtained from the differentiation of the quadratic function. Major findings are summarized as follows: 1. The M.O.S. was calculated as 166,174 members (27,442 households) for the rural self-employed health insurance associations and 258,462 members (75,446 households) for the urban. Providing that both the rural and urban health insurance associations would e integrated, the M.O.S. be found to become 231,687 members (68,101 households) 2. Compared with the optimal minimum scale, the magnitude of the current health insurance association found to be much smaller, less than half of the optimal scale. 3. In order to reduce the operating cost, it is necessary to enlarge the operational scale of self-employed health insurance associations.
Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Insurance ; Insurance, Health* ; Korea* ; Urban Health

No abstract available.
Appendicitis* ; Child* ; Humans

It is thought that the sanitary perception and hygienic food treatment of food suppliers as the first handlers of foodstuffs are extremely significant for the safe and sanitary management of food in group meal services. So in this study, a survey of 103 food suppliers who provide raw materials for 80 meal services in business places around Buasn area was conducted on general matters, participation in sanitation education, sanitary perception, sanitary treatment of foodstuffs, knowledge of sanitation, etc. The results of the survey are as follows: 1. 42.7% of the subjects have worked for the food supply companies for one to five years and the main job of 36.9% of them is delivery service. Food suppliers who handle over two foodstuffs are 6839%. 2. Concerning the participation in sanitation education, 43.7% of the subjects have not experienced any such education, The reason of 23.3% of them for not having the education is that there have been no opportunity for them at all. And 83.5% of them regard the education on hygiene as necessary. 3. In the sanitary perception, 93.1% of the subjects considered the temperature control of the food delivery vehicles as important and 82.5% of them replied on of the leading causes of food poisoning as foodstuffs. 64.0% thought of their knowledge of food sanitation as not very good, but moderate. 4. Concerning sanitary treatment of foodstuffs, 50.5% of delivery vehicles were wearing sanitary uniforms and 24.3% of them washed their hands while supplying food. 5. In the score of hygienic knowledge, the average score of all food suppliers was 60.6 point. In the score of hygienic knowledge on general matters, managing supervisors got 6.31+/-1.81, meat suppliers scored 7.08+/-1.37 and suppliers with 5 to 10 year careers recorded the highest point, 6.37+/-1.70. In the score of hygienic knowledge based on the perception of food sanitation, the food suppliers with the experience of sanitation education scored 6.42+/-1.93 point and the point was significant(p<0.01), compared with that of the food suppliers without the experience of sanitation education. The food suppliers who answered their knowledge was very good scored the highest point, 8.00+/-1.41. The food suppliers who replied that sanitation education was truly necessary recorded the hygienic knowledge score of 6.75+/-1.77, significantly(p<0.01) high. In the score of hygienic knowledge on the basis of the practical degree of sanitary handling of food materials, the food suppliers who answered they cleaned their delivery vehicles everyday scored 6.48+/-1.93, the food suppliers who answered they sterilized their delivery vehicles everyday scored 6.29+/-1.89, the food suppliers who answered they controlled the themperature of their delivery vehicles irregularly scored 6.58+/-1.79 and the food suppliers who answered they washed their hands every time when they were working scored 6.86+/-2.24, significantly(p<0.05) high in comparison with every item in other factors. And the food suppliers who answered they were wearing sanitary uniforms irregularly while suplying foodstuffs scored the highest point, 6.66+/-2.92.
Busan* ; Commerce* ; Education ; Food Supply ; Foodborne Diseases ; Hand ; Hygiene ; Meals ; Meat ; Sanitation

No Abstract Available.
Clone Cells* ; Cloning, Organism* ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium*

No abstract available.
Seizures*

In order to prepare the fundamental data for the improvement of noisy working environments and the effective hearing conservation program on workers exposed to industrial noise, the authors surveyed the working processes and evaluated the noise levels on 56 manufacturing industries in Pusan area from April to July in 1985. The results were summarized as follows: 1. The noise level was the highest in shipbuilding and repairing(95.6 dBA), and followed by steel rolling(92.9 dBA), manufacture of motor vehicles(93.1 dBA), manufacure of fishing nets(92.9 dBA), manufacture of testiles(92.5 dBA), iron and steel foundries(89.3 dBA), manufacture of metal products(89.1 dBA), preserving and processing of marine foods(87.0 dBA), manufacture of rubber products(85.3 dBA), manufacture of plywood(84.9 dBA) and manufacture of paints(84.5 dBA). 2. Among fifty surveyed working processes, the noise level of twenty-one processes(42%) exceeded the threshold limit value for 8 hours per day. 3. As the allowable exposure times by governmental threshold limit values to industrial noise level(dBA), cocking of shipbuilding and repairing and plating(CGL) of steel rolling were the shortest(30 minutes), and followed by assembling(rivet) of manufacture of motor vehicles(1 hour) weaving of manufacture of textiles and shot, machine, pipe laying of shipbuilding and repairing(2 hours). 4. By the result of octave band analysis on noisy working processes in excess of 90 dBA, the sound level was the highest at 2,000 Hz or 4,000 Hz. 5. It was recognized that the measurement of overall sound pressure level was also effective as octave band analysis in evaluating the industrial noise.
Busan ; Hearing ; Iron ; Noise ; Rubber ; Steel ; Textiles ; Threshold Limit Values