External fixators are popular in treatment of the open fractures of long bones, especially tibia, associated with soft tissue injury, because they prevent further injury to the injured soft tissue and bone. Over the past ten years, bilateral frame external fixtors such as Hoffmann system had been used for lower extremity lesions. But they had many disadvantages like that bilateral frames were less rigid in A-P plane bending moment mechanically, therefore unilateral frame external fixators such as Monofixateur have been introduced recently. The Monofixateur was able to fix the fracture rigidly and compress, distract and neutralize the fracture site and could be used as a static and dynamic stabilizer. We have treated 19 cases using Monofixateur of the Gotzen type for open fractures of lower extremity from October 1984 to Febrary 1987. The summary of the results obtainained from this study are as follows : 1. Monofixateur was easy to use, simple and light. It provided a rigid stability to fracture. 2. It was possible to allow static stabilization on the unstable fracture, whereas dynamic stabilization on the stable fracture. 3. Application was easier than any other type of external fixators from the view point of using a few screws and unilateral frame, therefore it could prevent further soft tissue injury and was easy to secondary operation. 4. It was possible to use for short fracture fragment of the proximal or distal fractures of the long bone. 5. The fracture healing time averaged 32.5 weeks and there were marked differences of the fracture healing time between open type I, II and III fractures. 6. There was little complication such as pin tract infection and ankylosis of the joint.
Ankylosis ; External Fixators ; Fracture Healing ; Fractures, Open ; Joints ; Lower Extremity ; Soft Tissue Injuries ; Tibia

PURPOSE: To examine the degree of depression and anxiety in Korean patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to evaluate the influence of mood disturbance on patient's treatment satisfaction and compliance. METHODS: Forty-four patients with AMD and thirty-three controls comprised the study populations. Patients and controls rated themselves on the Korean Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The effect of mood disturbance on the patient's satisfaction and compliance was evaluated. RESULTS: The depression and anxiety scores were significantly higher in patients with AMD. The mood disturbance was negatively correlated with the patient's satisfaction and compliance. 14 patients (31.8%) were lost to follow-up 1 year later. The depression and anxiety scores of these patients were higher than those of remaining thirty patients. CONCLUSIONS: Depression and anxiety of patients with AMD affect on patient's satisfaction and compliance. So recognition and management of mood disturbance may help improving visual function and maintaining quality of life in patients.
Anxiety ; Compliance ; Depression ; Humans ; Lost to Follow-Up ; Macular Degeneration ; Quality of Life

Since the aged population has been significantly increased with the improvement of public health care, the medical service in modern clinical field of (ophthalmic division have to provide them with the better vision to maintain better life on the basis of available data. In order to assess the situation of ocular disorders involving visual functions of the aged patients in the urban area, the survey was carried out retrospectively on 1,017 out-patients over the age of 60, who visited Department of Ophthalmology, Choong-Ang University, Seoul, in 1983 and 1984. The analysis of data resulted in as follows: 1. According to the total figures of the distribution of senile ocular disorders, the most prevalent ocular disorder was senile cataract 29.9%, and others included refractive errors 20.1%, chronic conjunctivitis including allergy 5.2% and hypertensive retinopathy 5.1%. 2. The causes of ocular disorders with visual impairment were as follows: 1) Reversible(Correctable); Senile cataract 39.0%, refractive errors 26.1%. 2) Irreversible; Hypertensive retinopathy 6.7%, vitreous opacity 6.0%. glaucoma 3.5%. corneal opacity 2.3% and diabetic retinopathy 1.9%. 3. The common causes of ocular disorders without visual impairment were accounted as chronic conjunctivitis 22.5% and blepharitis 7.2%. 4. The outcome of corrected visual acuity in the post-operative cataract patients showed mean improvement greater than 0.7 in 82.9%. Therefore the most importance of appropriate eye-care to the aged population, especially for the cataract surgery, refractive correction and glaucoma control are to be emphasized.
Blepharitis ; Cataract ; Conjunctivitis ; Corneal Opacity ; Diabetic Retinopathy ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Hypertensive Retinopathy ; Ophthalmology ; Outpatients ; Prevalence* ; Public Health ; Refractive Errors ; Refractive Surgical Procedures ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul ; Vision Disorders ; Visual Acuity

BACKGROUND: EGF and TGF-a are ligands for the EGF-receptor and act as mitogens for a variety of tissues. TGF-a, in particular, has been implicated as an autocrine growth factor for several cancer cell lines. TGF-B exerts an inhibitory effect on the growth of most epithelial cell types, and the loss of responsiveness to this growth inhibition has been implicated in the development of a variety of human cancers. In the present study, we evaluate whether EGF, TGF-a and TGF-B modulate apoptosis and cell cycle progression in cervical cancer cell lines. MATERIALS & METHODS: The effect of EGF, TGF-a and TGF-B on apoptosis and cell cycle such as CaSki and HeLa cell lines was analysed by flow cytometry RESULTS: 1. TGF-B did not induce apoptosis in CaSki and HeLa cell lines. 2. TGF-B as well as EGF, TGF-a, did not affect the process of apoptosis significantly. 3. The time to occur apoptosis was different between CaSki and HeLa cells treated by growth factots. 4. G1 phase was the checkpoint in CaSki and HeLa cells treated with TGF-B. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that TGF-B as well as EGF, TGF-a does not induce apoptosis and cell growth inhibition.
Apoptosis* ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints* ; Cell Cycle* ; Cell Line* ; Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Epithelial Cells ; Flow Cytometry ; G1 Phase ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Ligands ; Mitogens ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Infant* ; Streptococcal Infections*

Seventeen cases of paralytic strabismus secondary to abducens nerve palsy were treated with an injection of Botulinum Toxin A(Oculinum(R)) into the medial rectus muscle under the electromyographic control. All 17 cases, including 3 cases of bilateral abducens palsy, were followed up for 6 months to 23 months after the initial injection, there were no systemic side effects. The etiologic factors follow up deviation angle, dosage and complications were analyzed In the Thirteen cases of Oculinum(R) injection in antagonistic medial rectus muscle, the mean correction of preinjection deviation was 48.7%; the four cases who underwent both Jensen's operation and Oculinum(R) injection obtained 64.6%. The most common complication was ptosis which developed in 15 cases(64.7%) with a dosage of 2.75 u or above. From this study. we concluded that Oculinum(R) chemodenervation was effective in the acute case of abducens palsy without the anterior segment ischemia and systemic side effects.
Abducens Nerve Diseases* ; Abducens Nerve* ; Botulinum Toxins* ; Electromyography ; Follow-Up Studies ; Ischemia ; Nerve Block ; Paralysis ; Strabismus

PURPOSE: To evaluate prognostic factors for improvement of visual acuity after intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection (IVTA) for treatment of macular edema (ME) secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). METHODS: Sixty-eight eyes of 68 consecutive patients treated with IVTA for ME due to BRVO were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were categorized into 2 groups according to the final visual acuity. The 'gainer group' consisted of eyes with a gain of 2 or more Snellen chart lines and the 'non-gainer group' consisted of eyes with less than 2 lines improvement or which had worsened at the last follow-up visit. Comparative clinical characteristics and ophthalmoscopic examinations were analyzed between the 2 groups. RESULTS: Out of the 68 eyes, 38 (56%) showed improved vision and were categorized as the gainer group; 30 eyes (44%) were categorized as the non-gainer group. The duration of symptoms in the non-gainer group was longer than the gainer group. Additionally, patients with a better baseline vision were expected to show greater improvement. The number of early visual acuity gainers who showed visual improvement at 1 month after IVTA was significantly higher in the gainer group. The number of eyes with angiographically documented macular ischemia was significantly higher in the non-gainer group. Existence of subretinal fluid has been identified as a positive factor for visual improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The cases with early treatment, good baseline visual acuity, case of favorable response to the initial IVTA, absence of macular ischemia, and baseline subretinal fluid are favorable prognostic factors for the outcome of visual acuity after IVTA for ME due to BRVO.
Eye ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Macular Edema ; Retinal Vein ; Retinal Vein Occlusion ; Retinaldehyde ; Retrospective Studies ; Subretinal Fluid ; Triamcinolone ; Triamcinolone Acetonide ; Vision, Ocular ; Visual Acuity

No abstract available.
Angelica*

Waardenburg's syndrome is a very rare hereditary disease with the outstanding clinical characteristics including lateral displacement of the medial canthi of the eyes and of the inferior lacrimal puncta, a broad, prominent root of the nose, hyperplasia of the medial protions of the eye-brows, white or grey forelock, partial or total heterochromia of the irides, and neurosensory deaf-mutism. The authors recently experienced two cases of Waardenburg's syndrome in a 25 year old female and a 20 year old male. So, the literature of the Waardenburg's syndrome was briefly reviewed with clinical history.
Adult ; Deafness ; Female ; Genetic Diseases, Inborn ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Male ; Nose ; Waardenburg Syndrome* ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Nosocomial urinary tract infection (UTI) accounts for 35% of the nosocomial infection and 80-90% of them are associated with urethral catheters. Recently, we experienced an outbreak of nosocomial UTI caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in neurosurgical intensive care unit (NSICU). METHODS: We investigated clinical records of the patients and observed the methods of care of urethral catheters in NSICU. Identification of P. aeruginose was done by API NE (API system; bioMerieux, France) and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done by disk diffusion method. Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay was used as a genotyping method. RESULTS: Between November 1997 and January 1998, 11 P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from the urine of 11 patients hospitalized in NSICU of Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital. Routine regular bladder irrigation, and emptying urine with common urinal had been done falsely. Antibiogram of the isolates showed resistance to multiple antibiotics including imipenem, gentamicin. amikacin, piperacillin, ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, and cefoperazone/sulbactam. RAPD of the outbreak strains showed clonal relatedness, which was different from those of other clinical strains, We instructed all the health care workers to stop bladder Irrigation, and to use the separate urinals for each patient. Thereafter, no further case of P. aeruginosa UTI has occurred. CONCLUSION: An outbreak of UTI, caused by a single clone of P. aeruginosa, was confirmed by RAPD and was eradicated after correction of false practice on care-of urinary catheter.
Amikacin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Ceftazidime ; Ciprofloxacin ; Clone Cells ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diffusion ; DNA ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Intensive Care Units ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Piperacillin ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa* ; Pseudomonas* ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Catheters ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract*