BACKGROUND: Mixed venous oxygen saturation (SO2) monitoring turned out to be invaluable in following up systemic cardiovascular status. But balloon-tipped flow-directed thermodilution catheter (Swan-Ganz catheter) insertion carries additional inherent risks other than those of central venous catheterization, and it costs much more expense than simple venous catheter. There has been a lot of papers which argue that central venous catheterization may substitute for the Swan-Ganz catheterization. In addition, it may be very difficult or impossible to insert the Swan-Ganz catheter in pediatric patients. This study was performed to determine whether Swan-Ganz catheterization might be replaced by the central venous catheterization in regards to SO2. METHODS: In 17 pediatric open heart surgery (OHS) patients, from the central venous catheter, the tip of which had been located in the center of right atrium (RA) and pulmonary artery, blood samples were drawn for gas analysis simultaneously, which was done immediately after emergence from cardiopulmonary bypass. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between RA blood and mixed venous blood gas analyses except oxygen saturation. The oxygen saturations of both were linearly correlated with each other. The relation was SO2=17 0.8 SRAO2 (R=0.77, p<0.05) CONCLUSIONS: It may be concluded that RA blood may be used for blood gas analysis in place of mixed venous blood immediately after pediatric open heart surgery.
Blood Gas Analysis ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass* ; Catheterization, Central Venous ; Catheterization, Swan-Ganz ; Catheters ; Central Venous Catheters ; Heart Atria ; Heart* ; Humans ; Oxygen* ; Pulmonary Artery ; Thermodilution ; Thoracic Surgery*

BACKGROUNDS: Various methods have been devised for choosing the correct internal diameter (ID) of endotracheal tubes and the proper lengths for oral endotracheal tubes at different ages in children. This study was performed to evaluate the appropriate sizes of uncuffed endotracheal tubes and distance from upper incisor to carina in Korean children under 8 years old. METHODS: Five hundred thirty five children under 8 years in ASA class 1 and 2 were evaluated for the study by age groups: 0~3 months, 4~11 months and every each year until 8 years. Appropriate sizes were to permit a gas leak at 15~25 cmH2O with positive pressure ventilation. Distances from incisor to carina were at the point which bilateral lung sounds were noticed during slow extubation from endobroncheal intubation. RESULTS: Appropriate tube sizes were 3.0 mm to 3.5 mm for infants under 3 months, 3.5 mm to 4.0 mm for 4 to 11 months and ""4.15+0.28xage (yr) (mm)"" (R2=0.77, p<0.05) for children between 1 and 8 years old. Distances from upper incisor to carina were 12.0 cm for infants under 3 months, 13.7 cm for 4 to 11 months and ""14.5+0.6xage (yr) (cm)"" (R2=0.62, p<0.05) for children between 1 and 8 years old. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the endotracheal tube ID for the Korean children are a little greater than those of previous reports in foreign countries and airway lengths for the Korean children are similar to those of foreigners.
Child* ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Humans ; Incisor* ; Infant ; Intubation ; Positive-Pressure Respiration ; Respiratory Sounds

Thirty cases of gastric adenocarcinoma were examined immunohistochemically for expression of transforming growth factor-beta(TGF-beta) in order to analyze significant correlation with clinical stage and pathologic grade of gastric adenocarcinoma. Specific immunostaining was clearly detected in the cytoplasm of the neoplastic cells. The TGF-,6 expression in the gastric adenocarcinoma is closely related to the depth of invasion, the degree of invasiveness and the presence of metastasis. Thus, we observed the stronger immunohistochemical. expression of TGF-beta in the deeper portion of invasion and in the invasive gastric adenocarcinomas with the lymph nodal metastasis than in the superficial portion of invasion and in those without the lymph nodal metastasis. There results suggest that the transforming growth factors expression in carcinoma cells may play an important role in the carcinomatous invasion resulting in metastasis.
Adenocarcinoma ; Neoplasm Metastasis

We observed the gastric varices in l89 variceal patients with liver cirrhosis and in 129 patients with UGI bleeding by endoscopy. Gastric varices was found in 27 cases(14.2%) amoag 189 variceal cases. There was variceal bleeding in 74 cases(57.4%) beieg the toy cause of UGI: bleeding among l29 cases with UGI bleeding and 6(4.7%) had endoscopically proved gastric Variceal bleeding. Cardiac and fundic varices were observed in l8 and 12 cases, respectively end 12 cases of cardiac varices were mainly observed on the lesser curvature side. The incidence of isolated gastric varices being 30 % amoag gastric varices was far less than that of esophagogastric varices. There was no significant relations between the severity of liver cirrhosis and the kinds of varices These results suggest that gastric varices are not infrequent cause of UGI bleeding cases. Therefore all must have attention in gastric intestinal fiberscopic examination in portal hypertensive patients.
Endoscopy ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Play and Playthings ; Varicose Veins

Backgrounds: The purpose of fasting before surgery is to minimize the volume of gastric contents. A short fast after solid food increases gastric volume, but a small drink of clear fluid 2 to 3 hours preoperatively decreases gastric volume. This investigation examined the effects of a small drink of clear fruit juice 2 to 3 hours prior to anesthesia on gastric volume, gastric pH, thirst and hunger. METHODS: Two hundred eighty children whose ages were five to ten years, scheduled for elective surgery were randomly assigned to one of 7 groups. Group 1 continued to fast but in the other 6 groups the children drank 2 ml/kg, 3 ml/kg, or 4 ml/kg of clear fruit juice (orange or grape) 2 to 3 hours preoperatively. The degree of thirsty and hunger was checked. The volume of gastric contents was measured by syringe and the pH by pH meter. RESULTS: The children who drank fruit juice preoperatively had decreased gastric volume. The gastric pH was not significantly different with that of the control group. The degree of thirst and hunger was not significantly different with that of the control group. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a small drink of fruit juice 2 to 3 hours preoperatively is more preferable than 8 hours fasting.
Anesthesia ; Child* ; Fasting ; Fruit* ; Humans ; Hunger ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration* ; Syringes ; Thirst

Peritoneal desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a very rare malignant neoplasm and has specific clinical features; It is predominant in children and young males and has a well-demarcated large intra-abdominal tumor, which has not been associated with a primary visceral organ, with diffusely scattered multiple small tumors and rarely involves ovaries. It is a very aggressive and fast growing tumor along the peritoneal surfaces of the abdomen and pelvis. It has a typical histologic features and a specific immunohistochemical staining pattern. There is no definite treatment. It responses to surgery and chemotherapy at early period of therapy but relapses soon and rapidly progresses and then causes the death. We have experienced a peritoneal desmoplastic small round cell tumor which involved both ovaries, so we report this case with a brief review of literature.
Abdomen ; Child ; Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor* ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Ovary* ; Pelvis ; Recurrence

Nuss procedure offers excellent outcome effect in the cosmetic point of view, but the complications such as cardiac perforation, pericardial effusion, constrictive pericarditis, hemothorax, pneumothorax and bar displacement sometimes occur. We experienced a 13-year-old-male, who showed the profound hypotension with bradycardia due to the cardiac perforation and the lung laceration during the pericardiectomy and the removal of pectus bar. Emergent partial cardiopulmonary bypass was initiated and then, ruptured right atrium and lung laceration were repaired without the remarkable complications. In anesthetic management of the pectus excavatum. This case reveals that special attention should be paid to those with cardiac perforation and lung laceration.
Bradycardia ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass ; Funnel Chest* ; Heart Atria ; Hemothorax* ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Lacerations ; Lung ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pericardiectomy* ; Pericarditis, Constrictive* ; Pneumothorax

The general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia have many advantages, which are including early recovery, postoperative analgesia, and less requirement of inhalation anesthetic. But the complications of epidural anesthesia such as total spinal anesthesia, respiratory depression, myocardial ischemia, and local anesthetic toxicity can lead to cardiac arrest. We report a case of acute myocardial infarction in a 74-year-old female patient receiving general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia. The profound hypotension without bradycardia and ST-segment elevation in lead II occurred 1 hour after local anesthetic injection and cardiac arrest followed. After the injection of atropine, epinephrine and dopamine, and external cardiac massage, sinus rhythm was restored. Postoperative serial examinations of ECG showed ST-segment elevation in leads II, III, aVF and serum enzymes such as CPK, CK-MB, and Troponin T were elevated. Emergency percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was performed and the patient recovered uneventfully.
Aged ; Analgesia ; Anesthesia, Epidural ; Anesthesia, General ; Anesthesia, Spinal ; Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; Atropine ; Bradycardia ; Dopamine ; Electrocardiography ; Emergencies ; Epinephrine ; Female ; Heart Arrest ; Heart Massage ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Inhalation ; Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Troponin T

BACKGROUND: Nuss procedure used in pectus excavatum repair is preferred, because of its excellent effect from the cosmetic point of view and improved pulmonary function, but it cause severe pain due to thoracic expansion after the operation. This study was designed to evaluate effective fentanyl dose using an intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) pump for pain control following pectus excavatum repair in pediatric patients. METHODS: Sixty patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery were randomly assigned to received fentanyl 0.5microgram/kg/hr (Group I, n = 20), 0.7microgram/kg/hr (Group II, n = 20), and 1.0microgram/kg/hr (Group III, n = 20) via an IV-PCA pump (basal, 1 ml/h; bolus, 0.5 ml; lock out interval, 30 min) after operation. A blind observer evaluated each patient using the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario pain scale (CHEOPS) and the faces scale (FS). Incidences of side effects and pain control satisfaction were assessed at postoperative 48 hrs. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in CHEOPS or FS score between the groups the postoperative 48 hrs period. CHEOPS and FS scores at 4 and 8 hrs in groups II and III were significantly lower than in group I (P<0.05), but all groups showed lower CHEOPS and FS scores during the first postoperative 48 hrs. Satisfaction of pain control assessment by mothers was significantly higher in groups II and III than in group I (P<0.05). CHEOPS and FS scores were highly correlated with each other (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that infusion of fentanyl at 0.5microgram/kg/hr using an IV-PCA pump is effective for pain control of 5 years of age or older after Nuss procedure.
Analgesia, Patient-Controlled* ; Fentanyl* ; Funnel Chest* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mothers ; Ontario ; Thoracic Surgery

A 6-year-old-man with a severe pectus excavatum and marfanoid feature was admitted for the correction of pectus excavatum. Nuss procedure was recently introduced, because of its excellent effect from the cosmetic point of view. This method is that convex steel bar is inserted under the sternum through small bilateral thoracic incisions, and when it is in position, the bar is turn over, thereby correction the deformity. We experienced a case of the cardiac arrest during the rotation of a stainless steel bar. After the injection of atropine, epinephrine and the closed cardiac massage, sinus rhythm was restored. A vasovagal reflex due to the operation could be considered the possible etiology.
Atropine ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Epinephrine ; Funnel Chest* ; Heart Arrest* ; Heart Massage ; Humans ; Reflex ; Stainless Steel* ; Steel ; Sternum