• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.170-176
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• 2021

Purpose: Traumatic sternal fractures are rare but quite disabling injuries. Timely fixation of sternal fractures reduces pain and prevents respiratory complications. However, the fixation technique should be simple, effective, and readily available in local circumstances. Methods: From January 2014 to March 2020, seven patients with sternal fracture/dislocation underwent steel wire fixation with the new "Timala" technique. In this technique, adjacent ribs are anchored with two steel wires to form an "X" in front of the fractured segment of the sternum. Patients were followed up clinically and radiologically. Results: Six of the patients were men and one was a female. Five of them had injuries due to falls and two were injured in road traffic accidents. Their age ranged from 18 years to 76 years, with a median age of 41 years. All seven patients experienced immediate recovery from pain and showed evidence of fracture healing on postoperative chest X-rays and clinical examinations. Conclusions: Anchoring ribs to fix the sternum with steel wire is a safe, effective, easily available, and reproducible method to fix sternal fractures or dislocations.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-67
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• 2022

Pure anterior bilateral shoulder dislocations are rare clinical features, especially in traumatic forms. They are most often posterior, occurring during an epileptic seizure. Few cases are described in the literature, and the mechanism varies from case to case. We report a specific case of pure bilateral anterior shoulder dislocation in a 29-year-old judo player following an accident during his training and discuss the circumstances, mechanism, treatment, and prognosis.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.156-159
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• 2023

Breast implants whether used for cosmetic or reconstructive purposes can be placed in pockets either above or below the pectoralis major muscle, depending on clinical circumstances such as subcutaneous tissue volume, history of radiation, and patient preference. Likewise, cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) can be placed above or below the pectoralis major muscle. When a patient has both devices, knowledge of the pocket location is important for procedural planning and for durability of device placement and performance. Here, we report a patient who previously failed subcutaneous CIED placement due to incision manipulation with prior threatened device exposure requiring plane change to subpectoral pocket. Her course was complicated by submuscular migration of the CIED into her breast implant periprosthetic pocket. With subcutaneous plane change being inadvisable due to patient noncompliance, soft tissue support of subpectoral CIED placement with an acellular biologic matrix (ABM) was performed. Similar to soft tissue support used for breast implants, submuscular CIED neo-pocket creation with ABM was performed with durable CIED device positioning confirmed at 9 months postprocedure.

• The Journal of KAIRB
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.33-36
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• 2020

In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was discovered in Wuhan, China. The disease was so severe that as early as 30 January 2020 COVID-19 was declared by WHO as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. There have been a lot of concerns about conducting COVID-19 clinical researches scientifically and ethically in pandemic. This article is directed at addressing these issues from the perspective of IRB. First of all, the urgency of COVID-19 research requires prompt IRB process through efficient ethics review and oversight system. IRB should determine whether the risks that will be presented to human subjects are justified after assessing possible harm and anticipated benefits. The safety of subjects should not be compromised. Furthermore, informed consent should be voluntarily obtained by sufficient information in consideration of special circumstances during a pandemic.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.541-557
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• 2003

Purpose: This descriptive study was designed to explore the clinical nurse's ethical value regarding human life. Method: Data were collected from September to October, 2002. Study subjects were 527 clinical nurses working in General Hospital as tertiary located in Seoul. Ethical value was measured with questionnaire developed by researchers and consisted on items regarding ethical value on human life. Result: Among the items, most nurses highly agree with the item, "When a patient requests his/her health care provider to keep his/her personal secret, the health care provider is obliged to do so." and "When a patient asks for information on his/her medicinal and dietary contents, his/her wish must be granted." Most clinical nurses mainly agree with the item. "Health care providers must always be honest to the patient and/or his/her family". However, most nurses disagree with the item, "When a patient is on the verge of death after an accident, it is justifiable to soothe his/her family by saying 'he/she is OK' instead of telling them the truth, in order to avoid a sudden shock befalling on them". Most clinical nurses mainly disagree with the items, "When a patient is on the verge of death after an accident, it is justiable to soothe his/her family by saying 'he/she is OK' instead of telling them the truth, in order to avoid a sudden shock befalling on them" and "It is justiable that various new ways of treatment should be applied to patient at his/her terminal stage to prolong his/her life, even for the purpose of research". There were significant differences in some items of ethical value according by clinical nurse's age and professional experience, current position, religion, education, marital status, continued education on ethics, and the experience of holing on life saving treatment. Conclusion: It is intensifying the notion of ethical underpinning for human rights, truthfulness is essential to a trust relationship under what circumstances. Also most clinical nurses agree with that It is essential to trust in the nurse-patient relationship, patients have the right to know and it is the ethical thing to do as health care provider.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.126-138
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• 2020

Purpose: In Korea, since the Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients at the End of Life was implemented in February 2018, advance directives (ADs) have become legally effective and should be documented after sufficient explanation by a registered counselor. However, little is known regarding the adequacy of current AD counseling. This qualitative study aimed to explore the barriers to AD counseling based on counselors' experiences. Methods: We conducted focus group interviews using purposive sampling. Seven counselors working at hospitals, community health institutions, and non-profit organizations participated in this study. They were asked about the challenges and problems they encountered during AD counseling. Results: Three themes emerged from this study; 1) issues regarding consistency in AD counseling, 2) issues regarding AD counselors' competency and work environment, and 3) issues regarding the adequacy of the service system. The interviewees stated that the lack of a manual for standardized service made AD counseling inconsistent. The limited competency and poor work environment of counselors were pointed out as major barriers. The interviewees also stated that a proper service system considering individual circumstances is absent. Conclusion: The goals of AD counseling should be clarified and guidance should be implemented for providing standardized services. Further efforts to enhance the competency of AD counselors and to improve their working conditions are needed. Establishing an integrated framework for an adequate service system is also essential to overcome systematic barriers to AD counseling.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-87
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• 2007

The new research data and rapid development of psychotropic drugs over the past few years have warranted the development of clinical practice guidelines for managing pervasive developmental disorder(PDD). These guidelines are urgently needed due to the recent changes in social circumstances and clinical situations in Korea. Despite the many limitations and problems surrounding the development of these guidelines, the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry(KACAP) has decided to develop the Korean Practice Parameters for the Treatment of PDD. The goal, basic principles, organization, and implications of this development project are introduced in this special paper. We expect these practice parameters to be a useful reference not only for child psychiatrists and other healthcare professionals in clinical practice, but also for the autistic patients themselves and their caregivers. The practice parameters shall be revised and improved in the near future.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.449-458
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• 2005

There have been rapid changes in the pharmaceutical environment after the separation of Dispensing and Prescribing practice. In the early stage of this system, outpatients had few options to choose their pharmacies due to various obstacles. Under these circumstances, this study on the defection tendency of long-term care patients was performed through the analysis of outpatients who quit visiting a pharmacy nearby general hospital. PowerBuilder ver 9.0 program was used to extract significant data, and SPSS package was employed for statistic analysis. 3,308 outpatients who visited a pharmacy nearby hospital for a month (in January, 2004) were studied. Patients' sex, age and location of residence, the class of medical insurance, the characteristic type of medication (powder, split form, medication for external use/injection), waiting time, disease (department) were considered as variable factors. It turned out that the patient revisit ratio was 80.8$\%$ and the patient defection ratio was 32.4$\%$. As was expected, those factors mentioned above influenced on the revisit and defection ratio considerably. In terms of patient factors, it proved that there was no relationship among sex, location of residence, the class of medical insurance and revisit (defection) ratio. Only age factor influenced the ratio; the older, the higher revisit ratio and the less defection ratio. In respect of dispensing factors, there were obvious relationships among the factors and the ratio: bill (money they had to pay individually), waiting time, number of medications, splitting of tablets, unit price of drug and revisit (defection) ratio showed significant relationship. The result of this study revealed an aspect of outpatients' behavior and it could be used as a reference for better patient service and customer relationship management.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.141-145
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• 2017

Objective: Delaying embryo transfer (ET) enables us to select among the embryos available for transfer and is associated with positive effects on implantation and pregnancy outcomes. However, the optimal day for ET of human cleavage-stage embryos remains controversial. Methods: A retrospective study of 3,124 in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles (2,440 patients) was conducted. We compared the effects of day 2 and 3 ET on rates of implantation and pregnancy outcomes between young maternal age (YMA; < 38 years old, n = 2,295) and old maternal age (OMA; ${\geq}38years\;old$, n = 829) patient groups. Results: The YMA and OMA groups did not differ in terms of patient characteristics except for the proportion of unexplained factor infertility, which was significantly greater in the OMA group, and the proportion of arrested embryos, which was significantly greater in the YMA group. However, the biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, abortion, and implantation rates per cycle were not significantly different between day 2 and 3 ET in the YMA group or the OMA group. Conclusion: We suggest that offering patients the opportunity to decide which day would be suitable for ET could be part of a patient-friendly protocol that takes into consideration an infertile woman's circumstances and work schedule by allowing ET to be performed on day 2 instead of the traditional transfer on day 3.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.176-191
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• 2011

Purpose: This methodological study translated, adapted, and validated the evidence based guideline of RNAO (Registered Nurses Association of Ontario) in Canada, for acute stroke care to domestic circumstances. Methods: Quality of the RNAO guideline was evaluated using AGREE tool. Then the guideline was translated into Korean and a preliminary guideline was established After checking content validation by an expert group, the Korean version of the guideline was applied to clinical settings to see its applicability. Results: The RNAO guideline in Korea was deemed appropriate. The Korean version of the guideline was drawn up with 56 items in 3 areas in stroke system related nursing, nursing of acute stroke inpatients, and stroke nursing assessment. A questionnaire survey was performed on appropriateness, enforceability, and applicability of those recommendations. A total of 54 recommendations were finalized after deleting 2 items below CVI 0.7 and correcting 3 items by taking professional advices. After trial application of the guideline to 40 stroke patients hospitalized at a ward of a hospital in Seoul, its performance was improved but was not statistically significant. Conclusion: This guideline is expected to contribute to improving nursing quality by offering it as a guide to evidence based practices for acute stroke care in Korea.