Since surgical bone banks were set up at several university hospitals in early 1970s, the number of allograft is getting increased in Korean society. Most orthopedic surgeons have used allografts supplied by their own surgical bone banks for tumor reconstruction, arthroplasty, and ligament reconstruction. In 2000, a nation-wide survey for surgical bone banks was performed by Korean orthopedic Association. The questionnaires were prepared by the Committee on Tissue Bank in the Association, and sent to 110 university and training hospitals. Fifty-six surgical bone banks were encountered. However, facilities of the banks were not updated. Most of them were using one or two deep freezers only. Most of them do not have a full-time technician. While most bone banks were using surgically excised femoral heads and amputated limbs, some banks retrieved the tissues from cadaver or organ donors. Since the law for organ transplantation from brain death was established in February 2000, the number of allograft transplantation is growing tremendously. In order to secure the safety of allograft transplantation, the enactment of "the Law for Tissue Transplantation" is mandatory. Unlike organs, the tissues can be procured and stored in advance and can be used whenever they are needed by establishing and operating a form of tissue bank. Therefore, since it is difficult to regulate or supervise tissue banking by "the Law on the Organs and Transplantation", the enactment of a separate law is highly recommended. The government should set the certification standards for the bone and tissue banks suitable for the domestic circumstances. The request of certification of bone and tissue banks should be obtained by the banks that are currently in operation. Also, actual inspection team should be organized involving the professionals and public officers. This team will be responsible for audit of the banks. The certified bone and tissue banks should renew by paper review or actual inspection every 2~3 years. For safe and smooth operation of the banks, the licence system for certified tissue bank specialist(CTBS) should be adopted. Requirements such as academic requirement or professional experience in bone and tissue banks for a certain period of time will be needed.
Allografts ; Arthroplasty ; Bone Banks* ; Brain Death ; Cadaver ; Certification ; Extremities ; Head ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Korea* ; Ligaments ; Organ Transplantation ; Orthopedics ; Quality Improvement* ; Surgeons ; Tissue Banks ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Candidiasis* ; Drug Therapy* ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin*

No abstract available.
Candidiasis* ; Drug Therapy* ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Female ; Ovary* ; Rats* ; Serine Proteases* ; Serine*

BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster is a relatively common dermatological disease and there have been several reports on the epidemiological study of herpes zoster in Korea. However there has not been any report on the epidemiology of herpes zoster in Chuncheon and the Northern Kangwon Province. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the epidemiological characteristics of herpes zoster in Chuncheon and the Northern Kangwon Province. METHODS: The authors evaluated about 461 cases of herpes zoster with retrospective methods with regard to annual, monthly and seasonal incidences, age, sex ratio, associated conditions, anatomical distribution and complications at the department of dermatology in Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University during a 3-Year-Period from Jan. 1994 to Dec. 1996. RESULTS: The annual incidence of herpes zoster in new patients from our dermatology clinic ranged from 4.3% to 4.8%(mean 4.5%), and the ratio of male to female was 1:1.12. The peak incidence of monthly and seasonal analysis was in December and in the Fall. The majority of cases occurred most frequently over the 6th decade. The most common anatomical distribution of herpes zoster inpatients(211 cases) was thoracic dermatome(52.9%), followed by the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve(17.0%), cervical(13.6%), lumbar(6.3%), sacral(4.4%), maxillary branch of the trigeminal nerve(3.9%) and two different dermatomes (2.8%). Associated conditions of herpes zoster inpatients(211 cases) were observed in 108 patients (51.2%); hypertension(31.9%), gastritis(15.1%), diabetes mellitus(11.8%), hepatitis(9.2%), malignancy (8.4%), tuberculosis(4.2%), and so on. The complications including postherpetic neuralgia were observed in 58 patients(27.5%) and were common after the age of 50 years. The rnost common complication of herpes zoster inpatients(211 cases) was postherpetic neuralgia(14.7%), followed by ophthalmologic complications(8.1%), secondary bacterial infections(1.4%), neurogenic bladder(1.4%), otologic complications(0.9%), and so on. CONCLUSION: Most of the other results of our study were similar in comparison with reports from other regions in Korea, except for a higher annual incidence and significant differences in the monthly incidence. These differences reflected the regional characteristics of medical service delivery systems in Chuncheon and the Northern Kangwon Province.
Dermatology ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Gangwon-do* ; Heart ; Herpes Zoster* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male ; Neuralgia, Postherpetic ; Retrospective Studies ; Seasons ; Sex Ratio

No abstract available.
Case-Control Studies* ; Humans* ; Panax*

The suprapatellar plica is a synovial membrane that lies between the suprapatellar pouch and the true knee joint, but pathologic suprapatellar plica has been reported not frequently. We experienced one case of arch type of pathologic suprapatellar plica which was excised by arthroscopic technique, and report it with review of literature.
Knee Joint ; Synovial Membrane

Allografts or autografts of bone-tendon unit have been used for ligament injuries or deficiencies after limb salvage operation for malignant bone tumors around joints. While the remodeling process of the ligament or tendon of the allograftor autograft and the microscopic and biomechanical changes of tendon-bone graft interface have been widely investigated, little is known about the ultrastructural and biochemical changes of the transitionall zone in tendon-bone junction. This study was performed to analyzed the ultrastructural and biochemical changes of the transitional zone after tendon-bone auto-and allo-grafting. A total of twenty four rabbits were divided into two group. In 12 animals(allograft group), two Achilles ten-don-bone unit per each animal were taken and transplanted to another rabbit after preservation below -70degrees C for 2 weeks. In the other 12 animals(autograft group), the Achilles tendon-bone unit was harvested from one side and transplanted to the other side of the rabbit. After operation, their legs were immobilized with short leg cast for 4 weeks, and then mobilized freely. Four animals in each group were sacrificed at four, eight and sixteen-weeks after the transplantation, and their grafted Achilles tendon-bone interfaces were used for analysis of the ultrasturctural and biochemical changes. The following results were obtained. 1. Histologically new cartilage cells were observed at postoperative 16 weeks with local presence of faint tidemark in the autograft group but not in the allograft group. Complete remodeling of the transitional zone had not observed histologically in both groups. 2. Ultrasturctural analysis revealed no definite differences between both groups. However, the slightly rapid appearance of parallelism and cross-striation of microfibrils in the autograft group and time-related restoration of fibers and fibroblasts were observed. 3. From biochemical analysis, type I collagen concentratin was increased, and an early rapid increase of type III collagen and glycosaminoglycan were also observed. In conclusion, these data suggested that type III collagen and glycosaminoglycan are important in stabilization of grafted tendon-bone unit, especially in the transitional zone. The histological and biochemical changes in allograft group were relatively similar to that of autograft group although the allograft group showed the delayed pattern of remodeling. Therefore, the tendon- allograft could be used as a good substitute for the autograft for tendon or ligament reconstruction when no suitable autograft is available.
Allografts ; Animals ; Autografts ; Cartilage ; Collagen Type I ; Collagen Type III ; Fibroblasts ; Joints ; Leg ; Ligaments ; Limb Salvage ; Microfibrils ; Rabbits* ; Tendons ; Transplants*

No abstract available.
Extremities* ; Limb Salvage* ; Tendons*

In order to investigate air pollution by heavy metals in Seoul city, the suspended particulates in the atmosphere were sampled with high volume air sampler in industrial area(Ku Ro Dong), commercial(Kwang Hwa Moon) and residential(Shin Chon Dong) from January to November, 1977. The sampled suspended particulates were digested and extracted from suspended particulates with the acidic solution by reflux-extraction technique, and were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. And Mercury was measured by mercury analyzer applying the reducing sublimation technique. Among heavy metals analyzed, the iron was identified at th highest level in the suspended particulates and the chromium was the least. Through the surveyed area, the concentration of heavy metals of the industrial area was comparatively high among others and the commercial was the second. It was detected that lead was the most concentrated in the suspended particulate of the commercial area, that might be caused of the traffic emissions. The seasonal variations were analyzed and the correlations among heavy metals and total suspended particulate were also calculated. Especially, the iron was highly correlated with total suspended particulate in all the surveyed areas.
Air Pollution ; Atmosphere* ; Chromium ; Iron ; Metals, Heavy* ; Seasons ; Seoul* ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; Sublimation