After craniotomy, bone flap fixation can be performed using wires, sutures, microplates, and Craniofix®. Well-margined and fixed bone flaps are important not only for postoperative brain protection but also for esthetics. Herein, we report a case of cranioplasty due to bone flap dislocation by Craniofix® clamp loosening after craniotomy with acute subdural hemorrhage removal. Iatrogenic outward force during epidural drain removal adjacent to Craniofix®, insertion of the clamp around the circumference of the bone flap, increased intracranial pressure due to brain swelling and fluid collection, and external shock during postoperative patient management are thought to be the causes of bone flap dislocation. To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of craniotomy with a Craniofix® clamp release.

Background: This clinical trial was conducted to determine whether combined use of magnesium sulfate and vitamin C more significantly reduced postoperative fentanyl consumption and pain than magnesium sulfate or vitamin C alone. Methods: The prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled study enrolled 132 patients scheduled for laparoscopic gynecologic surgery. The patients were randomly allocated to one of the four groups (n = 33 for each group; Group M [magnesium sulfate 40 mg/kg], Group V [vitamin C 50 mg/kg], Group MV [magnesium sulfate 40 mg/kg and vitamin C 50 mg/kg] and Group C [isotonic saline 40 ml]). Cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption (primary endpoint measure), postoperative pain score by numeric rating scale, and postoperative nausea and vomiting were recorded at 1, 6, 24, and 48 h after discharge from the postanesthesia care unit. Results: Cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption was significantly less in Groups M, V, and MV than in Group C at all time points. Group MV showed significantly less cumulative postoperative fentanyl consumption than Group M at postoperative 24 h (mean ± standard deviation, 156.6 ± 67.5 vs. 235.6 ± 94.6 μg, P = 0.001), as well as significantly less consumption than Groups M and V at postoperative 48 h (190.8 ± 74.6 vs. 301.0 ± 114.8 or 284.1 ± 128.6 μg, P < 0.001, P = 0.003, respectively). Conclusions Combined use of magnesium sulfate and vitamin C provides an additional benefit in postoperative pain management after laparoscopic gynecologic surgery in comparison to single administration of magnesium sulfate or vitamin C.

BACKGROUND: Health maintenance and monitoring of transplant candidates, the great majority of whom are undergoing chronic dialysis, can be a determinant of post-transplant prognosis. New issues such as malignancy, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and psychosocial problems might arise among potential recipients, which may lead to cancellation of the transplantation. METHODS: A questionnaire, including questions regarding follow-up monitoring, was sent to 66 transplant centers, and responses to the survey were obtained from 35 centers (53%). A similar questionnaire was sent to 217 wait-listed patients, and 164 (76%) responded. RESULTS: Regular contact between the transplant center and patients was maintained by only 37% of the centers. No consistent pattern of contact was observed for 11%. Sixty percent of the centers monitored patients by telephone. Three-fourths of the transplant centers monitored their patients annually or every 6 months. A cancer screening program was run by only 17% of the centers, and 29% did not routinely request cardiac screening. Most centers (83%) informed their patients of the features of marginal kidneys. However, many patients (69%) reported not hearing about marginal kidneys, and 43% indicated that a cadaver transplant was cancelled because of a cadaver donor problem. CONCLUSIONS: Our survey indicates that the necessity for routine follow-up monitoring is broadly recognized by 86% of transplant centers and 78% of wait-listed patients However, no formal monitoring guidelines currently exist for wait-listed patients in Korea. Therefore, guidelines are absolutely necessary for improving the quality of post-transplant life.
Cadaver ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Dialysis ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Prognosis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Telephone ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Waiting Lists

PURPOSE: CT angiography (CTA) is established as a standard method for the evaluation of patients with peripheral arterial disease. However, there are some drawbacks including overestimation of stenotic lesions as well as dye toxicity and allergic reactions and renal function impairment. Arterial waveform analysis (AWA) is widely accepted as a diagnostic as well as a screening tool in the vascular laboratory. The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the AWA compared to the CTA. METHOD: One hundred thirty-eight AWA procedures were performed among symptomatic patients in our laboratory between October 2004 and February 2007. Sixty patients were entered into the study; they were eligible to have AWA and CTA synchronously. There were 5 women and 55 men with an average age of 64 years. The disease entities were atherosclerosis in 53, Burger's disease in three, popliteal entrapment in 2, arterial embolism in 1 and vascular trauma in one. Continuous-wave Doppler velocity waveforms were recorded at the common femoral, popliteal and dorsal pedal and posterior tibial arterial levels with compression cuffs. Four hundred and eighty segmental interpretations were analyzed and compared with the CTA findings. RESULT: The sensitivity of the AWA to detect iliac, femoropopliteal and tibial lesions were 93.8%, 64.4% and 88.4% respectively. The specificity of the AWA for the iliac, femoropopliteal and tibial lesions were 87.3%, 93.4% and 95.6% respectively. Overall, the accuracy of the AWA was 88.9% compared to the CT findings. Additional exercise AWA improved the results from 82.8 % to 88.6% for the overall sensitivity of the AWA. The 20 false positives included technical problems in 14 and reference errors (CTA) in six that were due to calcifications. There were 33 false negatives mostly from cases with stenosis and good collaterals. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the AWA was a valuable method for the prediction of hemodynamically significant arterial lesions. The addition of highly skilled operators and a protocol including a high thigh cuff application might improve the accuracy of this diagnostic method.
Angiography* ; Atherosclerosis ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Embolism ; Female ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Peripheral Arterial Disease ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thigh

PURPOSE: Venous reflux in primary varicose vein arises from the saphenofemoral junction (SFJ), and the saphenopopliteal junction (SPJ) and it can arise from the non-junctional great saphenous vein (GSV) tributaries and, the non-saphenous veins. Superficial venous surgery (SVS) is associated with a significant improvement in the lower leg venous hemodynamics. We performed a retrospective study to examine the prevalence of the reflux pattern in the primary varicose veins and, to observe any change of non-junctional GSV reflux. METHOD: From May 2004 to July 2005, 481 patients (766 limbs) were diagnosed with venous incompetence by performing a duplex ultrasound examination. A follow-up duplex ultrasound examination was performed for a group of non-junctional GSV reflux patients and for a group of patient having both superficial vein reflux and deep vein reflux. RESULT: The prevalence of SFJ reflux, SPJ reflux, below the knee GSV reflux with competent SFJ and, non saphenous vein reflux was 82%, 13%, 10% and, 4.5% respectively. In the patients with SVS who had deep vein reflux (DVR), DVR was absent in only on two patients (6%). Eight patients (9.1%) of the 88 primary varicose vein patients had asymptomatic left iliac vein obstruction detected by performing an ascending venogram during radiofrequency ablation (RFA). On the duplex findings after SVS, the reflux pattern of left deep venous system was not different from the right deep venous system. CONCLUSION: Varicose veins may occur in any vein, even if junctional reflux is predominant. Careful duplex ultrasound evaluation will delineate the changing pattern of venous reflux with/without SVS. Although superficial venous surgery must fit the patient's map, the results might be variable. Prospective studies are needed to analyze the dynamics of venous reflux after SVS.
Catheter Ablation ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Iliac Vein ; Knee ; Leg ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Saphenous Vein ; Ultrasonography ; Varicose Veins* ; Veins

PURPOSE: Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is believed to cause serious complications. PTDM might be one of the important risk factors of cardiovascular death after renal transplantation. Because the consequence of PTDM is expected to take long time, long-term follow-up is necessary. We performed this study not only to define the prevalence and risk factors of PTDM but also to define the long-term clinical impact of PTDM. METHODS: Among 508 patients who had received renal transplantation at Seoul National University Hospital between July 1969 and December 1995, 431 patients were included. Patients were grouped into PTDM and non-DM groups. The clinical characteristics were compared between two groups. RESULTS: Mean follow-up duration was 121.9 months (2~346 months). PTDM was developed in 68 (15.8%) patients. Recipient age at transplantation (P=0.004), family history of DM (P=0.000) and obesity (P= 0.000) were significant risk factors in multivariate analysis. Complications of PTDM such as cerebrovascular disease (CVD, P=0.040), ischemic heart disease (IHD, P=0.040), and infection (p=0.044) were significantly more frequent in PTDM group. The frequency of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN) was not different between two groups. Although graft survival rate was not affected by PTDM, patient survival rate was significantly lower in PTDM group (P=0.002). CONCLUSION: PTDM increased complication rates such as CVD, IHD and infection. PTDM seemed not to affect graft survival, but to worsen the patient survival rate.
Allografts ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Graft Survival ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; Multivariate Analysis ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Seoul ; Survival Rate ; Transplantation*

While endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is prevailing for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in modern vascular practice, PURPOSE: we conducted nationwide questionnaire survey to investigate the current status of AAA treatment and their results in Korea. METHOD: We reviewed the replies from 28 hospitals (33 departments) to the questionnaire inquiring annual number, clinical features, mode of treatment and results of AAA patients during the period from Jan. 2000 to Jul. 2004. Results: 980 AAA patients were reported including 292 ruptured AAA (29.8%) and 688 non-ruptured AAA (70.2%). For treatment of AAA, 834 (85.1%) surgical repairs (SRs) and 111 (11.3%) endovascualr aneurysm repairs (EVARs) were performed while 35 patients (3.6%) died of AAA rupture before operation. The locations of AAA were infrarenal in 889 (90.7%), juxtarenal in 62 (6.3%), and suprarenal in 29 patients (3.0%). Among 834 patients undergoing SR, 577 patients (69.2%) had non-ruptured AAAs and 257 patients (30.8%) had ruptured AAAs. Mean operative mortality rate was 4.1% after elective SRs, 30.7% after SR for ruptured AAAs, and 2.3% after EVARs. The reported brand name of stent graft devices were various including domestic custom-made in 56 (50.5%), imported brand in 18 (16.2%) while 37 (33.3%) stent grafts were not reported their brand name. The frequencies of type I and III endoleaks after EVAR were reported 5.8% and 5.8% respectively in 86 patients with an available data. CONCLUSION: SR has been used as a major treatment option in Korea for the treatment of AAA patients while EVAR is increasing. The mortality rate of SR of AAA was comparable to western multi-center trial reports but mortality or morbidity rates of EVAR were unable to know in this questionnaire survey.
Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal* ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Endoleak ; Humans ; Korea* ; Mortality ; Questionnaires* ; Rupture ; Treatment Outcome

PURPOSE: Arterial TOS is a rare condition caused by compression of the subclavian artery at the thoracic outlet area, which is composed of the anterior and middle scalene muscles, the first rib and the clavicle. We have experienced four cases of arterial TOS and we reviewed them to determine the appropriate management of arterial TOS. METHOD: We reviewed the medical records of 26 patients who were diagnosed and managed for TOS at Seoul National University Hospital from 1985 to 2004. We reviewed the clinical manifestations, diagnostic tools, mode of management and the outcomes. RESULT: The four patients with arterial TOS, 3 males and 1 female, had an average age of 41.3 years (range: 30~53 years). They complained of a tingling sense, coldness, weakness, and cyanosis of affected limb, and a gangrenous finger. They were diagnosed with CT angiography, conventional angiography and Doppler US. The findings were stenotic artery segments, post- stenotic dilatation and luminal thrombi of the subclavian artery. Two of them showed multiple peripheral arterial embolic obstructions and numerous collateral vessels. Three patients with arterial TOS underwent surgery. The operation consisted of the excision of the bony abnormality and the scalene muscle, segmental resection of subclavian artery including the aneurismal dilatation, interposition of a saphenous vein graft, and thromboembolectomy. Their symptoms improved after restoration of blood circulation, but the gangrenous finger required amputation. CONCLUSION: Arterial TOS has the definite risk of limb loss. If there is a high clinical suspicion of this lesion, early diagnosis and confirmation by angiogram may be critical to prevent limb loss. Surgical revascularization provides satisfactory results for limb salvage with low operative morbidity.
Amputation ; Angiography ; Arteries ; Blood Circulation ; Clavicle ; Cyanosis ; Diagnosis* ; Dilatation ; Early Diagnosis ; Extremities ; Female ; Fingers ; Humans ; Limb Salvage ; Male ; Medical Records ; Muscles ; Phenobarbital ; Ribs ; Saphenous Vein ; Seoul ; Subclavian Artery ; Thoracic Outlet Syndrome* ; Transplants

PURPOSE: An IRI (Ischemia-reperfusion injury) of the liver is one of the main problems in major liver surgery, liver transplantation and liver trauma, which can lead to liver failure. The mechanism of a liver IRI is supposed to be highly related to the oxygen free radicals (Should the read, "free oxygen radicals"?) made in the course of the damage process. Therefore, antioxidants must be one of the most effective therapeutic modalities for liver IRI. Haematococcus pluvialis contains a lot of astaxanthin, which is known of powerful antioxidant. Since the use of synthetic astaxanthin is not permitted to humans, only naturally produced astaxanthin, such as Haematococcus, is a candidate for use. In this report, the antioxidant effects of a Haematococcus extract has been studied and compared with other antioxidants and synthetic astaxanthin. METHODS: To evaluate the effect of the Haematococcus extract in a liver IRI, the mouse liver IRI model was employed. Following ischemia for 60 minutes, three reperfusion periods were used; 3, 24 and 48 hours. The MDA (malondialdehyde) values in the liver, lungs and serum were all evaluated, and two types of Haematococcus extract compared with other antioxidants and synthetic astaxanthin. RESULTS: In all tissues and serum, the antioxidants all produced lower levels of MDA than in the control. The oil- extracted Haematococcus group had much lower MDA levels compared to the biomass Haematococcus and other antioxidants groups. The effects of synthetic astaxanthin are similar to those of oil-extracted Haematococcus. CONCLUSION: The Haematococcus extract has very potent antioxidant effects compared with vitamin E and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) in protecting the liver from IRI. Oil-extracted Haematococcus is better than biomass Haematococcus, and was even comparable to the effects of synthetic astaxanthin.
Animals ; Antioxidants* ; Biomass ; Free Radicals ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Liver Failure ; Liver Transplantation ; Liver* ; Lung ; Mice* ; Oxygen ; Reperfusion ; Reperfusion Injury* ; Superoxide Dismutase ; Vitamin E ; Vitamins

BACKGROUND: Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD) is known to be associated with bone marrow transplantion. It is very rare in solid organ transplantation, especially in renal transplantation. There were only a few reported cases of GVHD in pancreas, liver transplant recipients or transfusion associated GVHD in immunocompromised patients. CASE: A 36 years-old man received renal transplantation from his mother on May 20th, 1996. Cyclosporine A, azathioprine & prednisolone were used as immunosuppressants. There was no episode of acute rejection after transplantation. After transplantation, he suffered from cytomegalovirus (CMV) cystitis, bile duct stones. He had never been transfused blood products since transplantation. Thereafter, his post-transplantation course was quite favorable until December 20th, 2003, when troublesome diarrhea and weight loss developed. At that time, he was taking 1.25 g/day of MMF (25 mg/kg/day). Hospital course: The MMF dose was reduced to 500mg bid (312 mg/m2/dose or 20 mg/kg/day) under the suspicion of CMV colitis. The results of serologic test and culture for CMV were all negative. The colonoscopic biopsy revealed pathologic features such as crypt drop-out, crypt abscess, crypt atrophy, single cell apoptosis and goblet cell depletion just like in GVHD. He had no necrotic skin lesion and his liver function test was in normal range. However, his complete blood count showed pancytopenic features. The MMF was discontinued immediately after the pathologic results were reported. His diarrhea and other clinical sym-ptoms were disappeared, and the pancytopenic features recovered gradually after discontinuation of MMF. He also gained 2.6 kg weight and discharged with good graft function.
Abscess ; Adult ; Apoptosis ; Atrophy ; Azathioprine ; Bile Ducts ; Biopsy ; Blood Cell Count ; Bone Marrow ; Colitis* ; Cyclosporine ; Cystitis ; Cytomegalovirus ; Diarrhea ; Goblet Cells ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Kidney Transplantation ; Liver ; Liver Function Tests ; Mothers ; Organ Transplantation ; Pancreas ; Prednisolone ; Reference Values ; Serologic Tests ; Skin ; Transplantation* ; Transplants ; Weight Loss