• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제52권8호
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• pp.856-861
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• 2009

Cardiopulmonary arrest has long been accepted as an unquestionable definition of death. An advent of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and artificial ventilation along with the development of organ transplantation has prompted the emergence of the concept of brain death. The criteria for brain death are based mainly on the clinical examination of coma, apnea and total loss of brain stem function. Although organ transplantation by donor brain death has increased in Korea over recent years, there is still a substantial shortage of donor organs compared to the demand. Improvement of government policies and changes of social culture for organ donation are needed for the activation of organ transplantation by donor brain death. Pediatricians have an important role for the search of potential donors in cases of brain death and optimal medical care for successful organ transplantation.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.118-124
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• 2017

Electroencephalography (EEG) is frequently used to assist the diagnosis of brain death. However, to date there have been no guidelines in terms of EEG criteria for determining brain death in Korea, despite EEG being mandatory. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on the evidence and controversies with regarding to the utilization of EEG for determining brain death and to serve as a cornerstone for the development of future guidelines. To determine brain death, electrocerebral inactivity (ECI) should be demonstrated on EEG at a sensitivity of $2{\mu}V/mm$ using double-distance electrodes spaced 10 centimeters or more apart from each other for at least 30 minutes, with intense somatosensory or audiovisual stimuli. ECI should be also verified by checking the integrity of the system. Additional monitoring is needed if extracerebral potentials cannot be eliminated. Interpreting EEG at high sensitivities, which is required for the diagnosis of brain death, can pose a diagnostic challenge. Furthermore, EEG is affected by physiologic variables and drugs. However, no consensus exists as to the minimal requirements for blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and body temperature during the EEG recording itself, the minimal time for observation after the brain injury or rewarming from hypothermia, and how to determine brain death when the findings of ECI is equivocal. Therefore, there is a strong need to establish detailed guidelines for performing EEG to determine brain death.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.1204-1212
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• 1990

Recent social and medical developments have significantly changed both the concept of death and the criteria for its pronouncement. Instead of considering. the heart as central to the determination for death, it is now prevalent to use death of the brain as adequate for death regardless of cardiac function in most western countries. But the brain death theory is not yet legally accepted despite growing public interest in our country due mainly to customary and moral reasons. Subsequently heart transplantation, which necessitates the concept of brain death, still remains a possible surgical entity in the future. As a part of endeavor the evaluate social atmosphere for the legal acceptance of the concept of brain death and the availability of potential heart donors, a four-page questionnaire on brain death and cardiac transplantation was given to the sophomore students of a medical college in Seoul[n=116, group I] and their family members[n=83, group II ]. The groups were chosen under the assumptions that they lacked sophisticated medical knowledge but had general medical interest so reliable data could be obtained. The majority of respondents in both group I and II thought that they knew the concept of brain death[group I 99.1%, group II 93.3%] and the definition of heart transplantation[group I 94%, group II 67.6%] at least to some extent, but only a small proportion of them was proven to have correct knowledge: brain death[74.4%, group II 39. 8%], heart transplantation[group I 31.9%, group II 30.1%]. Most respondents answered in the affirmative for the legal approval of brain death[group I 87.8%, group Il 97.9%]. The possibility of medical usage of brain dead organs was the biggest reason for brain death[group I 52.9%, group Il 47.9%]. Ninety-one percent of group I and 89.1 percent of group II responded that they were willing to give permission for donating the heart of brain-dead family members. Fifty-nine percent of group I and 51.9 percent of group II wanted their own heart donated. These results suggest, despite some inherent sampling limitations, that favorable responses to brain death and heart transplantation can be obtained among the general public if they are properly informed.

• 한국가족관계학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.3-23
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis of results of death education program implemented with a wide range of learners from preschoolers to the elderly and use the findings to suggest effect sizes of the intervention program, variables, and measurement tools and activity elements of the variables. Method: Among preceding studies conducted domestically until 2015, 21 studies that meet the meta-analysis criteria were selected and analyzed using CMA(Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0 version). Results: The findings are as follows. The overall average effect size was rather large at 0.997. Reviewing by research subject group, victims of domestic violence indicated the largest effect size(2.381). As for variables, death awareness showed the largest effect size(2.908). In terms of activity elements, the largest effect size for total number of sessions was 16 sessions (4.972), while that for per week sessions was 2 sessions/week (2.327). With effect size for activity hours largest at 30 minutes(5.365) followed by 108 minutes(2.381) and 360 minutes(1.607), it was found that there is no positive relationship between activity time and effect size. In terms of publication type, effect size of academic journal paper was 1.107 while that of thesis or dissertation was 0.894, indicating that academic journal papers are relatively highly effective. Conclusions: The present study is meaningful in that it provides baseline data applicable to program development and implementation by verifying the effectiveness of domestically implemented death education programs and variables relevant to such programs.

• 의료법학
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.125-153
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• 2012

The adult guardianship system has been introduced through amendments of Korean Civil Code for the first time in the March 2011(Act No. 10429, 7. 1. 2013. enforcement). The adult guardianship system has the main purposes to provide a lot of help vulnerable adults and elderly, and protect them on the welfare related with property act, treatment, care, etc. There could be a controversy about whether the protection Legal Guardian's consent(formerly known as the Mental Health Act) or permission of the Family Court(revised Civil Code) are required to, or the Mental Health Act should be revised, when mental patient will be hospitalized forcibly. The author proposes that mental patient with Adult guardians should be determined by Legal Guardian's consent and approval of the Family Court, but mental patient without Adult guardians could be determined by Legal Guardian's consent. The issue of Withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment could be occurred due to the aging society and the development of modern medicine, and this has provided difficult, various problems to mankind in Legal, ethical, and social welfare aspects. The need of Death with dignity law or Natural death law has been reduced for a revision of the Civil Code. Therefore, on the issue of Withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment, in the future, intervention of the court is necessary in accordance with the revised Civil Code Section, and Organ Transplantation Act and the brain death criteria may serve as an important criterion.

• 대한한의학원전학회지
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• 제3권
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• pp.1-150
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• 1989

Oriental medicine thinks life and death as the following. 1. The universe seems to be a kind of organism which is divided into 3 branches, as Heaven, Earth and Man. Man is not created from nihil by the Creator. Heaven and Earth by their interaction operate to produce man. This is similiar that zygote is not created from nihil, and that sperm and ovum are transformed into zygote by their interaction. The symbolic meaning of sperm is Heaven, and that of ovum is Earth. Mind and body, as well as spirit and body, are not the real, but artificial words for the purpose of observing and expressing one man. So there is not spiritual substance as distinct from body. The expected life span of man is subjected to change, and is always becoming through life. Fate, the Creator and the world to come cannot be said to be. 2. After one's death, man is transformend into Heaven and Earth. Dying is this process of transformation. Although man comes into existence and closes one's life, the total life of the universe does not change. The criteria of determination of death is not in cell death, but in somatic death. Somatic death divided into 2 branches, one is heart-lung death, the other is brain death. For the standard of health changes ceaselessly as time goes by, aging and dying is not the process of losing health. Because of mind cannot be seperated from body, we'll feel at ease bodily and mentally in healthy dying. The completion of lifetimes is the value of healthy dying. 3. From the viewpoint of these, we must think to let a person die healthily is the right medical ethics. The way to let a person die healthily is divided into 3 branches, one is treatment, another is prevention and the other is promotion of health. We should treat and prevent death of sickness, but take care of healthy dying.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.7-15
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• 2020

The field triage guidelines have been widely implemented in the Korean trauma system. This study aimed to evaluate and validate whether it is reliable to use the field triage guidelines for predicting severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and traumatic spinal injury (TSI) patients. This study retrospectively analyzed in-hospital cohort registries of all TBI and TSI patients, who visited the emergency department (ED) of the Jeju National University Hospital from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2015. The primary outcome was defined as TBI and TSI patients with an injury severity score (ISS)>15. Secondary outcomes were defined as cases in which one or more of the following conditions: in-hospital death, ISS>15, admission to the intensive care unit, emergency surgery. We enrolled 14,889 TBI and TSI patients who visited ED, of which 7,966 (53.5%) were triage positive. The overall sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of the full cumulative field triage guidelines step's model (Step 1+3+4 criteria) for primary outcome were 82.8%, 47.0%, and 0.646, respectively. In the results for secondary outcomes, the specificity did not show a significant difference, but the sensitivity decreased to 66.5% and AUC to 0.568. The results of this study suggest that further optimization of the field triage guidelines is needed to identify high-risk TBI and TSI patients.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.167-172
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• 2006

In the present study, we developed a simple method to predict the neuronal cell death in the mouse hippocampus and striatum following transient global forebrain ischemia by evaluating both cerebral blood flow and the plasticity of the posterior communicating artery (PcomA). Male C57BL/6 mice were anesthetized with halothane and subjected to bilateral occlusion of the common carotid artery (BCCAO) for 30 min. The regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured by laser Doppler flowmetry. The plasticity of PcomA was visualized by intravascular perfusion of India ink solution. When animals had the residual cortical microperfusion less than 15% as well as the smaller PcomA whose diameter was less than one third compared with that of basilar artery, neuronal damage in the hippocampal subfields including CA1, CA2, and CA4, and in the striatum was consistently observed. Especially, when mice met these two criteria, marked neuronal damage was observed in CA2 subfield of the hippocampus. In contrast, after transient BCCAO, neuronal damage was consistently produced in the striatum, dependent more on the degree of rCBF reduction than on the plasticity of PcomA. The present study provided simple and highly reproducible criteria to induce the neuronal cell death in the vulnerable mice brain areas including the hippocampus and striatum after transient global forebrain ischemia.

• 대한암한의학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.11-25
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• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study is to report the case of a patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) mutation treated by Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT). Methods: A patient with metastatic NSCLC received pembrolizumab 200mg intravenously for every 3 weeks from July 2017. Repeat cycle every 3 weeks since July 2017. The patient has been treated with Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT) since December 2016. The tumor size was measured by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). Adverse events were evaluated by the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE), version 5.0. Results: After combined treatment, the extent of proximal portion of primary tumor in the left lower lobe was decreased and disease status was stable radiologically. No evidence of newly developed metastatic lesions in the brain since May 2017. The patient did not experience any adverse event according to NCI-CTCAE ver. 5.0. Conclusion: This case study suggests that Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT) may contribute to tumor response, in conjunction with Pembrolizumab on the treatment of patients with NSCLC.

• 대한치과마취과학회지
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.28-33
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• 2003

Background: The fundamental responsibility of an anesthesiologist is to maintain adequate gas exchange. Failure to maintain a patent airway can result in brain damage or death. Generally, in patients with mandibular prognathism, who have the protruded mandible, the mask ventilation was thought to be not easy. The purpose of this study was to observe the degree of the difficulty of airway management in mandibular prognathism using some anatomic criteria for defining and grading difficulty of airway and difficulty of endotracheal intubation with direct laryngoscope. Methods: The observations and measurements are done to the 54 patients with mandibular prognathism, who were scheduled for corrective esthetic surgery. The case study is done to the 30 patients with normal mandible for control group. In all patients, mouth opening distance (MOD), mouse opening angle (MOA), mandibular length (ML), mandibular depth (MD), thyromental distance (TMD), thyromental area (TMA), Mallampati grades, and Cormack and Lehane grades are measured. T-test and Chi-square test are done (P < 0.05). Results: In the mandibular prognathism cases, the measurements of MD, TMD and TMA are more greater than those of controls (P < 0.05). Mallampati grades with tongue thrust are higher in the female mandibular prognathism cases than those of female controls. Most of the grades of the mandibular prognathism cases with Cormack and Lehane grading system are I or II being easy intubation cases (P < 0.05) Conclusions: In the patients of mandibular prognathism, the intubation with laryngoscope will be easer than that of normal mandible in general. It is for that their laryngeal aperture can be easily visible when the laryngoscope are used.