We herein describe a case of a 55-year-old healthy woman with localized primary thymic amyloidosis presented as a mediastinal mass, found incidentally by chest radiography. Computed tomography revealed a 4.1 cm soft tissue lesion with nodular calcification in the left anterior mediastinum. The resected specimen was a well-defined lobulating mass with calcification. Microscopically, the mass was consisted of amorphous eosinophilc hyalinized substances involving the thymus and intrathymic lymph nodes. These eosinophilic substances showed apple-green bi-refringence under polarized light after staining with Congo red. In immunohistochemical study, they were positive for kappa and lambda light chains and negative for amyloid A. There was no evidence of systemic amyloidosis in clinical investigations. A final diagnosis of localized primary thymic amyloidosis was made.
Amyloid ; Amyloidosis ; Congo Red ; Eosinophils ; Female ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Light ; Lymph Nodes ; Mediastinum ; Middle Aged ; Thorax ; Thymoma ; Thymus Gland

Sacral pressure sores have been treated by a variety of surgical methods. complete treatment needs wide excision and coverage with healthy tissue which has constant and sufficient blood supply. Use of gluteus maximus muscle flap with or without overlying skin is a revolutionary method because of the reliability of blood supply. However, it is technically a little bit complicated, and future reconstruction for recurrent decubitus is especially limited in paraplegic patients. The development of gluteal perforator-based flap with para-sacral perforator introduce a new treatment modality for the sacral pressure sores. Total 10 cases of sacral pressure sores were treated with gluteal perforator-based flap. There were minimal postoperative complications except wound dehiscence in one case. This flap has a many advantage of no transection or sacrifice of the gluteus maximus muscle, elevation time for the flap is short, reliable blood flow of the perforator, large rotation arc and no post-operative hindrance to walking in patients who are not paraplegic. The disadvantages of this perforator-based flaps are the anatomical variation in the location of perforators and the need for technically careful dissection.
Humans ; Postoperative Complications ; Pressure Ulcer* ; Skin ; Walking ; Wounds and Injuries

No abstract available.
Allopurinol* ; Alprostadil* ; Skin*

No abstract available.
Ankylosis* ; Facial Asymmetry* ; Temporomandibular Joint*

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: We have attempted to identify prognostic factors regarding CC/hMG ovarian stimulation and IUI in infertility and to seek factors valuable in planning infertility treatment and predicting the success rate of IUI therapy in individual couples. METHODS: The variables selected for initial analysis were female age, duration of infertility, type and diagnosis of infertility, number of pre-ovulatory follicles (>or=16 mm, >or=18 mm follicles), thickness of the endometrium, number of the treatment cycles, result of semen analysis, ovarian stimulation protocol, number of IUI. A logistic regression method was used to identify significant variables that contribute to the success of CC/hMG/IUI treatment. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis revealed four predictive variables as regards pregnancy: duration of infertility (p=0.011), infertility etiology (p=0.049), number of IUI (p=0.004), method of ovarian stimulation (p=0.042). A cause of infertility, especially ovarian dysfunction other than tubal factor, a shorter duration of infertility (<6 years) and CC/hMG minimal ovarian stimulation protocol with double IUI resulted in better treatment success in CC/hMG with IUI cycles. CONCLUSION: We concluded that careful patient selection criteria coupled with successful ovarian stimulation and increased sperm count in female reproductive tract is the model for CC/hMG/IUI sucess.
Diagnosis ; Endometrium ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Infertility ; Insemination* ; Logistic Models ; Ovulation Induction* ; Patient Selection ; Pregnancy ; Semen Analysis ; Sperm Count

The treatment of massive bone and soft tissue defect in the lower leg has a high complication rate of nonunion, chronic infection, and amputation without well-vascularized tissue coverage of the open fracture. Despite adequate free soft tissue coverage, massive skeletal defect may result in segmental bone defects, angulation deformity, and limb length discrepancies. In the last decade, major advances have occurred in the Ilizarov method of distraction osteogenesis in lower leg salvage as a delayed procedure or simultaneous distraction after free-tissue transfer. The authors have performed Ilizarov transport in conjunction with muscle and musculocutaneous flap coverage in nine cases of lower leg salvage. The flaps consist of rectus, gracilis, latissimus dorsi, parascapular, and serratus muscle or musculocutaneous fashioning using ipsilateral or contralateral pedicle in consideration of vessel condiation. Revision, recorticotomy and flap elevation were also used as a secondary procedure for satisfactory results. The conclusions, were as follows: 1) Multidisciplinary team approach with conjoining departments at the time of preoperative evaluation, postoperative care and rehabilitation care; 2) Muscle flap covered with split-thickness skin graft was preferred to musculocutaneous flap; 3) To reduce the total reconstructive period, simultaneous free tissue transfer with Ilizarov distraction should be considered.
Amputation ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Extremities ; Fractures, Open ; Ilizarov Technique ; Leg* ; Myocutaneous Flap ; Osteogenesis* ; Osteogenesis, Distraction ; Postoperative Care ; Rehabilitation ; Skin ; Superficial Back Muscles ; Transplants

Cleft lip is one of the most common congenital deformities in craniofacial region. However, despite many reports on the outcome of various surgical techniques from individual medical centers, the evaluation of the outcome has been based on the subjective observation. Therefore, developing a new technique of objective and scientific evaluation for the nasal deformity of secondary cleft lip and nasal deformity is important to improve the management of the cleft lip patients. The authors have proposed a new scoring model to evaluate objectively the nasal deformity. The authors put 'x' axis on the nostril sill of noncleft side and 'y' axis on nasal tip at a right angle to x axis. The nostril of noncleft side was turned around the y axis to form the mirror image on the cleft side, and following four parameters were recorded: (1) angle difference between two nostril axis, (2) center of the nostril and distance between two centers, (3) the overlapped area of two nostrils and (4) the overlapped area ratio of two nostrils. The post-surgery images were evaluated by the three plastic surgeons, using the scale of 5 percentiles. The four parameters of each image were measured using a newly developed software and correlation coefficients of each parameter and the evaluation scale by the surgeons were obtained. Among the scores from scoring model, errors greater than 10 percents were found only in 2 of 14 cases (2/14=14%), but among the scores from examiners, errors of greater than 10 percents were 4 from 14 cases (4/14=29%). Based on the results, deviation among the individual examiners can be reduced using the objective evaluation program developed in this study. The correlation coefficients between the normalized overlap area (0.78) and the distance between the centers of two nostrils (-0.82) with the evaluated scale by surgeons were high. However, the relative area and the degree difference of two nostril axis were found to be not such a good parameters in the evaluation of the nasal deformity. We developed scoring model from analysis of nostril shape and neural network which is able to evaluate cleft lip nasal deformity objectively after selection of proper parameters.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Cleft Lip* ; Congenital Abnormalities* ; Humans ; Nose*

No abstract available.
Pulmonary Artery*