PURPOSE: We analyzed the usefulness of vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) dressing to facilitate the healing of difficult wounds by comparing the results of conventional dressings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We selected 20 cases for the experimental group (VAC group) and 20 cases for the control group (conventional dressing), and investigated the change in wound size, formation of granulation tissue, and duration of wound healing in the two groups. RESULTS: In the VAC group, the size of wound decreased from 60.2+/-59.1 cm2 to 29.7+/-18.8 cm2 (p=0.001). In the control group, it decreased from 60.3+/-83.3 cm2 to 34.4+/-47.6 cm2 (p=0.04). For formation of granulation, it increased from 1.2+/-0.4 to 2.7+/-0.6 (p=0.001) in the VAC group and from 1.2+/-0.4 to 2.4+/-0.5 in the control group. For the duration of healing, it took 17.5+/-8.3 days for the VAC group and 22.9+/-22.0 days in the control group (p=0.857). However there were no statistically significant differences in all the parameters between the 2 groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The clinical application of VAC to difficult wound yield comparable results in terms of a decrease in wound size, formation of granulation, and the duration of healing. VAC dressing could be an alternative treatment option for a difficult wound considering the advantage of saving medical human resources.
Bandages ; Granulation Tissue ; Humans ; Imidazoles ; Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy ; Nitro Compounds ; Wound Healing

OBJECTIVES: The iris is the part of the eye that is colored, and it is an important feature in making an artificial eye. To address the lack of information about the brown Korean irises, we classified the colors and patterns of the irises of 100 Korean eyes. METHODS: The iris colors were extracted from 100 different digital photographs of each eye using K-mean clustering image analysis. The RGB data of the extracted colors were converted to CIELAB color space data and analyzed to determine the representative color of the iris in each photograph. The color differences were calculated to form groups of similar colors by matching the 100 samples into several groups with minimum color differences among them. The average hue value for each group was calculated, and the corresponding representative color was selected from 2 to 3 colors in one group. RESULTS: The iris colors were classified into seven brown color groups with 2 to 3 colors in each group. The coloration of Koreans' eyes appears to vary in a similar hue with differences in chroma and lightness. In addition, the iris patterns were classified into three basic patterns, namely, crown, sunshine, and flower, as well as three complex patterns that are mixtures of two basic patterns. CONCLUSIONS: We classified Korean iris colors and patterns for application in the design of artificial eyes.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Classification* ; Crowns ; Eye, Artificial ; Flowers ; Humans ; Iris* ; Sunlight