• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.472-476
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• 2001

Background: Minimally invasive surgery of pectus excavatum by Dr. Nuss is a new technique that allows the repair of this deformity without any cartilage resection or sternal osteotomy We describe the early experiences with Nuss procedure. Material and Method: From December 1999 to January 2001, twenty patients with pectus excavatum underwent repair by Nuss procedure There were 14 males and 6 females whose mean age was 10.1$\pm$7.7 years, ranging from 1 to 33 years. Most patients(N=19) were below 20 years, except 33 years old female patient(N=1). Result: The severity of depression was assessed by computed topography(CT). CT index was mean 4.9$\pm$5.7(ranged from 3.3 to 8). The average operating time was 85.8$\pm$23.7 minutes. The used metal bars were ranged in length from 8 inches to 16 inches(average 11.8$\pm$14.4 inches). Early postoperative complications were pneumothorax in three patients, paralytic ileus in one, and postoperative chest pain requiring analgesics in all patients. Epidural analgesia was used in one adult patient for control of postoperative pain. In our experiences, there were no serious complications posteoperatively. Conclusion: There were good early results with the Nuss procedure that we performed for repairing of pectus excavatum. However, we believe the procedure needs to be observed for the long term results for it to be broadly accepted.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.827-832
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• 2004

Background: The significance of MIDCAB is emerging topics recently as OPCAB is going to be universalized, and long-term outcome of bypass graft surgery was proved to be more excellent than balloon dilation or stent insertion. We report our MIDCAB results in 73 patients in the last three years. Material and Method: Retrospective analysis of medical records was done from November 1, 2000 through November 31, 2003. There were 47 males and 26 females ranging in age from 31 years to 79 years (average $61.3\pm9.8$ years). Observation periods after operative procedures were 10 to 1238 days (average $763\pm319.8$ days). Left longitudinal parasternal incision as a standard procedure was done to approach the heart after dissection of the left internal thoracic artery by partial or total resection of 3rd to 5th ribs. Result: Of those patients, 46 patients were transferred to ICU after extubation at operation room and 58 patients were extubated within 3 hours after operation. Average ICU staying periods was $26.8\pm11.5$ hours. Follow-up angiography during admission was done in 36 patients and showed 100% patency. Only one patient died on the 10$^{th}$ post operative day because of sudden CVA. Complications included wound problems in 4 patients, and constructing pericardial window using thoracoscopy due to continuous pericardial effusion in 1. Permanent pacemaker was inserted in one patient owing to sick sinus syndrome. In one patient with recurrence of angina 8 months after operation, stenosis at anastomic site was found and improved with balloon dilatation. Conclusion: We were satisfied with our results of MIDCAB in single and multi-vessel coronary artery disease. These results have made the cardiologists tried to operate positively and we expect widening operative indications including hybrid revascularization.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.12 s.269
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• pp.931-933
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• 2006

Robotic assisted surgery in adult patient with congenital ventricular septal defect Since December in 2005, we have done minimally invasive surgeries in selected cases of mitral valve diseases, tricuspid valve diseases, atrial septal defects and atrial fibrillations with the $AESOP^{TM}$ robotic arm. We have had a better surgical view and skill, according to accumulation of the experience of this procedure. Recently, we performed robotic assisted surgery in a 47-year-old female with congenital perimembranous ventricular septal defect.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.772-776
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• 2008

The indications and applications of arthroscopic surgery for the knee joint have increased with the development in surgical techniques and the improvement of arthroscopic equipment. The use of arthroscopic surgery has led to a significant decrease in morbidity for the patient with intra-articular abnormalities, in terms of both the diagnosis and the surgical treatments. Even though arthroscopy is a minimally invasive technique with relatively low morbidity, it is not without risk of complications, of which neurovascular complications are among the most serious and devastating. Here we report on 2 cases of popliteal artery injury during arthroscopic knee surgery and its specific diagnosis and treatment.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.11 s.256
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• pp.733-738
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• 2005

Background: The possibility of incomplete revascularization and development of flow competition after revascularization of the borderline lesion made the hybrid strategy as an option for complete revascularization. Material and Method: From January f998 to July 2004, 25 $(3.2\%)$ patients underwent hybrid revascularization among 782 total OPCAB procedures. Clinical results and angiographic patencies were evalulated. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was peformed before CABG in 8 patients and after CABG in 47 patients. Result: The causes of PCIs before CABG were to achieve complete revascularization with minimally invasive surgery (n=7) and emergent PCI for culprit lesion (n=1). The indications of PCIs after CABG were high possibility of flow competition in the borderline lesion of right coronary artery territory (n=8), diffuse atheromatous lesion preventing anastomosis of graft (n=5), severe calcified ascending aorta with no more arterial grafi available (n=3), and intramyocardial coronary lesion (n=1). Mean number of distal anastomoses was $2.3\pm1.0$. Mean number of lesions treated by PCI was $1.2\pm0.4$. There was no operative or procedure-related mortality. PCI-related complication was periprocedural myocardial infarction in one patient, and complications related to CABG were transient atrial fibrillation (n=5), perioperative myocardial infarction (n=1), and transient renal dysfunction (n=1). Early postoperative coronary angiography $(1.8{pm}1.6days)$ revealed $100\%$ patency rate of grafts (57/57). The stenosis occurred in one patient performed PCI before CABG, which was successfully treated with re-ballooning. During midterm follow-up (mean; $25{\pm}26$ months), 1 patient died of congestive heart failure. All survivors (n=24) accomplished follow-up coronary angiographics, which showed .all grafts (56/57) were patent except one string sign. In-stent restenosis was developed in 2 patients who received bare metal stents. Conclusion: In selected patients, complete revascularization was achieved with low risk by taking the hybrid strategy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.10 s.267
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• pp.765-769
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• 2006

Background: Nuss procedure is a minimally invasive technique for correcting the pectus excavatum. But there are some limitations of correcting the complex anomaly or grown-up patients. Material and Method: we retrospectively reviewed 135 consecutive patients who underwent repair of pectus excavatum by the Nuss procedure and its modifications between November 1999 and December 2004. We analyzed the computed tomography, age on operation, operative technique, and complications. Result: We operated 135 patients of pectus excavatum during 62 months. Total number of operations about Nuss procedure is 216, including bar removal procedure of 64 cases, redo Nuss procedures of 47 cases. We modified the point of bar insertion to the hinge point, made a shoulder in the bar to prevent a displacement. And then we changed the fixation material from Vicryl to steel wire. If the patients are old, we retract the sternum during bar rotation and fixation. Until 2002, the number of redo Nuss operations were 17, complications were 23. but, after modifications, the number of redo Nuss operation were 0, complications were 2. Conclusion: This result indicates that our modifications of Nuss operation is effective, and could decrease the number of redo Nuss operation and complications.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.3 s.248
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• pp.229-232
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• 2005

Lumbar Sympathectomy is a surgery for plantar hyperhidrosis, vascular and other reflex sympathetic diseases and has a various indications and physiologic effects. However it is not performed actively compared to thoracic sympathectomy because of its invasiveness. Therefore, we tried to perform lumbar sympathectomy using mediastinoscopy with small incision and introduce this new surgical technique. Material and Method: From July 2003 to December 2004, 18 patients undewent lumbar sympathectomy with mediastinoscopy at Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital. There were 12 males and 6 females whose mean age was 24.3$\pm$8.2 years ranging from 18 to 67 30 cases of lumbar sympathectomy was performed with mediastinoscopy of which 24 cases were for plantar hyperhidrosis and 6 cases for other diseases. Result: Mean operation time was 37.2$\pm$12.5 minutes and mean post operation hospital stay was 3.1$\pm$2.2 days. There was one post sympathetic neuralgia and one peritoneal opening. Conclusion: Lumbar sympathectomy using mediastinoscopy is a simple and effective technique and has the advantage of cosmetics, post operative pain and hospital stay. However, further studies with large number of cases should be carried out for better outcome.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.377-380
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• 2008

Abdominal aortic aneurysm has traditionally been treated by open repair. Aortic endovascular stent grafting has recently been introduced as a new modality. We report here on three cases of endovascular stent grafting that were performed by cardiovascular surgeons for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm in the high risk patients with multiple comorbidities such as old age, hypertension, renal failure, cerebrovascular accident and immobility.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.557-561
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• 2010

In the treatment of myasthenia gravis, thymectomy is generally accepted as the standard of therapy. For thymectomy, there have been various conventional open approaches including sternal splitting, but recently minimally invasive approaches have been increasingly applied. A 28-year-old man presenting with weakness of both hands and fatigability was diagnosed as having myasthenia gravis with thymic hyperplasia. He underwent a robot-assisted thymectomy with the 'da Vinci' surgical system. Through the right thoracic cavity, two thirds of the thymic gland was dissected, and the remainder was resected through the left; these procedures took, respectively, 1 hour and 30 minutes. The patient was discharged on the 8th postoperative day without complications. The minimally invasive approach with the 'da Vinci' surgical system is emerging as a popular choice and various advantages have been reported. Here we report the first successful case of robot-assisted thymectomy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.692-696
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• 1998

For the management of a secondary spontaneous pneumothorax, videothoracoscopic surgery may offer the potential therapeutic benefits of a minimally invasive approach. We report on a series of 36 patients(33 men and 3 women) with a mean age of 56.3 years(range, 31 to 80 years) who underwent thoracoscopic surgical procedures for the treatment of secondary spontaneous pneumothorax. Twenty-one patients had emphysema and 20 patients had old pulmonary tuberculosis. Nineteen patients presented a persistent severe air leak more than 3 days preoperatively and 15 patients had more than one recurrence. Bullectomy or exclusion of the lesion was performed in 33 patients. Mechanical pleurodesis was performed in the entire patients, talc was sprayed in 22 and vibramycin in 14. Mild pleural adhesion at the upper lobe was shown in 10 patients and severe pleural adhesion in 7 patients. One patient with persistent air leak died of persistent air leak and respiratory failure. The mean postoperative stay was 7.0 days(range, 2 to 17 days). At a mean follow-up of 15.8 months (range, 5 to 45 months), no pneumothorax had recurred. In comparison with the result of the treatment for 112 patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax, the operating time was not significantly longer and there were no more primary treatment failures, but the duration of postoperative chest drainage and hospital stay was longer. Videothoracoscopic surgery has proved to be an effective treatment for secondary spontaneous pneumothorax in elderly patients who represent high-risk candidates for thoracotomy.