• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.73-76
• /
• 2010

Purpose: There are several surgical methods for correcting a velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) but in some cases, it is not possible to achieve complete recovery of the velopharyngeal function. This paper introduces a new therapy for treating hypernasality without further surgery using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Methods: CPAP therapy was applied to seven VPI patients for eight weeks from April of 2007 to September of 2009. All patients underwent palatoplasty for the cleft palate and six patients underwent palatal lengthening for VPI before CPAP therapy. A speech pathologist performed an auditory perceptual evaluation to evaluate the improvement in hypernasality after 8-week CPAP therapy. Results: Six patients showed an improvement in hypernasality after CPAP therapy according to the auditory perceptual evaluation. One patient with severe hypernasality responded to the early part of therapy but the hypernasality did not improve after therapy. Conclusion: CPAP therapy might be effective in reducing the hypernasality in patients with VPI by providing resistance training to strengthen the velopharyngeal closure muscles. In particular, CPAP therapy could be more effective for patients who show mild to moderate hypernasality after surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.127-133
• /
• 2013

Objectives: Infererior alveolar nerve (IAN) damage may be one of the distressing complications occurring during implant placement. Because of nature of closed injury, a large proportion is approached non-invasively. The purpose of this study was to analyze the outcomes of conservative management of the injured nerve during dental implant procedure. Materials and Methods: Sixty-four patients of implant related IAN injury, who were managed by medication or observation from January 1997 to March 2007 at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Seoul National University Dental Hospital, were retrospectively investigated. The objective tests and subjective evaluations were performed to evaluate the degree of damage and duration of sensory disturbance recovery. Tests were performed on the day of the first visit and every two months afterward. Patient's initial symptoms, proximity of the implant to the IAN, time interval between implant surgery and the first visit to our clinic, and treatment after implant surgery were analyzed to determine whether these factors affected the final outcomes. Results: Among the 64 patients, 23 had a chief complaint of sensory disturbance and others with dysesthesia. The mean time until first visit to our hospital after the injury was 10.9 months.One year after nerve injury, the sensation was improved in 9 patients, whereas not improved in 38 patients, even 4 patients experienced deterioration. Better prognosis was observed in the group of patients with early visits and with implants placed or managed not too close to the IAN. Conclusion: Nearly 70% of patients with IAN injury during implant placement showed no improvement in sensation or dysesthesia with the conservative management. Earlier decision for active treatment needs to be considered because of possibility of deterioration of symptoms and unsatisfactory recovery.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.299-304
• /
• 2021

Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a rare, progressive, life-threatening condition of thrombotic microangiopathy characterized by thrombocytopenia, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, and renal impairment. The mechanisms underlying aHUS remain unclear. Herein, we present the first case in the literature of aHUS after a traumatic injury. A 55-year-old male visited the emergency department after a traumatic injury caused by a tree limb. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a rectal wall defect with significant air density in the perirectal space and preperitoneum, implying rectal perforation. Due to the absence of intraperitoneal intestinal perforation, we performed diverting sigmoid loop colostomy. An additional intermittent simple repair was performed due to perianal and anal injuries. One day postoperatively, his urine output abruptly decreased and serum creatinine level increased. His platelet level decreased, and a spiking fever occurred after 2 days. The patient was diagnosed with acute renal failure secondary to aHUS and was treated with fresh frozen plasma replacement. Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) was also started for oliguria and uremic symptoms. The patient received CRRT for 3 days and intermittent hemodialysis thereafter. After hemodialysis and subsequent supportive treatment, his urine output and renal function improved. The hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia also gradually improved. Dialysis was terminated on day 22 of admission and the patient was discharged after recovery. This case suggests that that a traumatic event can trigger aHUS, which should be considered in patients who have thrombocytopenia and acute renal failure with microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. Early diagnosis and appropriate management are critical for favorable outcomes.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.324-332
• /
• 2020

Background The deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap is the commonest flap used for breast reconstruction after mastectomy. It is performed as a unilateral (based on one [unipedicled] or two [bipedicled] vascular pedicles) or bilateral procedure following unilateral or bilateral mastectomies. No previous studies have comprehensively analyzed analgesia requirements and hospital stay of these three forms of surgical reconstruction. Methods A 7-year retrospective cohort study (2008-2015) of a single-surgeon's DIEP-patients was conducted. Patient-reported pain scores, patient-controlled morphine requirements and recovery times were compared using non-parametric statistics and multivariable regression. Results The study included 135 participants: unilateral unipedicled (n=84), unilateral bipedicled (n=24) and bilateral unipedicled (n=27). Univariate comparison of the three DIEP types showed a significant difference in 12-hour postoperative morphine requirements (P=0.020); bipedicled unilateral patients used significantly less morphine than unipedicled (unilateral) patients at 12 (P=0.005), 24 (P=0.020), and 48 (P=0.046) hours. Multivariable regression comparing these two groups revealed that both reconstruction type and smoking status were significant predictors for 12-hour postoperative morphine usage (P=0.038 and P=0.049, respectively), but only smoking, remained significant at 24 (P=0.010) and 48 (P=0.010) hours. Bilateral reconstruction patients' mean hospital stay was 2 days longer than either unilateral reconstruction (P<0.001). Conclusions Although all three forms of DIEP flap breast reconstruction had similar postoperative pain measures, a novel finding of our study was that bipedicled DIEP flap harvest might be associated with lower early postoperative morphine requirements. Bilateral and bipedicled procedures in appropriate patients might therefore be undertaken without significantly increased pain/morbidity compared to unilateral unipedicled reconstructions.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.269-276
• /
• 2009

Purpose: Local skin necrosis after extravasation of adriamycin, a widely used chemotherapeutic agent, is a common problem in cancer patients. The extravasation of chemotherapeutic agents yields severe inflammatory responses, crust formation, skin necrosis, and ulceration. Even though several treatment options have been proposed for extravasation injury, there is still controversy regarding the management of such lesions. Thus the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of saline injection(Group 1), hydrocortisone injection(Group 2), propranolol injection(Group 3) and early surgical excision as a treatment(Group 4) in a rat extravasation model. Methods: The authors planned forty mature male Sprague - Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups and each group contained 10 rats. Administration of adriamycin($1.0mg/m{\ell}$) $1.5m{\ell}$ by subcutaneous injection on the dorsal side of the rats was followed by protocol. The treatment options were applied 2 hours after adriamycin injection. At the end of the 5th days, the presence and size of ulcers at the injection site were measured. 3 weeks after injection, a histopathologic examination was performed for each treatment and control group. T - tests were used to analyze the differences between the measurements. Results: Propranolol significantly improved tissue recovery compared with control group and other groups. These data suggest that there is little role for saline and hydrocortisone in the treatment of adriamycin extravasation injury. Conclusion: In this study, we compared some treatment methods in adriamycin extravasation model. The findings support the propranolol injection may prevent extravasation injury. However this study was performed in the laboratory using rats, and the results could be different in clinical application. Thus, more needs further investigations and clinical application.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.313-317
• /
• 2000

Return of facial nerve function is important in patients with facial nerve paralysis by trauma. Sometimes, delay in diagnosis of facial nerve paralysis make recovery of facial nerve function difficult. Traumatic facial palsy mostly occur after temporal bone fracture in unilateral. Temporal bone fracture after head trauma are divided into the three group; longitudinal fracture, transverse fracture and mixed fracture. The most common symptoms are hearing impairment, bloody otorrhea, loss of consciousness and facial nerve paralysis. The early care of temporal bone fracture involves facial nerve paralysis. And there has been many discussion and study in the treatment of the immediate or delayed facial palsy ; examply, surgical approach, time and methods. We have managed a patient with unilateral facial nerve paralysis after longitudinal temporal bone fracture in mastoid process and conservative facial nerve decompression was performed. We have obtained good result and report this case with review of literatures.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.376-384
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The role of prophylactic abdominal drainage in total gastrectomy is not well-established. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of abdominal drainage in the prevention and management of major intra-abdominal complications after total gastrectomy for gastric carcinoma. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of 499 patients who underwent total gastrectomy for gastric carcinoma in a high-volume institution. The patients were divided into drainage and non-drainage groups and compared for the development and management of major intra-abdominal complications, including anastomotic leak, abdominal bleeding, abdominal infection, and pancreatic fistulas. Results: The drainage group included 388 patients and the non-drainage group included 111 patients. The 2 groups showed no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics or operative procedures, except for more frequent D2 lymphadenectomies in the drainage group. After surgery, the overall morbidity (drainage group vs. non-drainage group: 24.7% vs. 28.8%, P=0.385) and incidence of major intra-abdominal complications (6.4% vs. 6.3%, P=0.959) did not significantly differ between the two groups. The non-drainage group showed no significant increase in the incidence rate of major intra-abdominal complications in the subgroups divided by age, sex, comorbidity, operative approach, body mass index, extent of lymphadenectomy, and pathological stage. Abdominal drainage had no significant impact on early diagnosis, secondary intervention or reoperation, or recovery from major intra-abdominal complications. Conclusions: Prophylactic abdominal drainage showed little demonstrable benefit in the prevention and management of major intra-abdominal complications of total gastrectomy for gastric carcinoma.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.97-101
• /
• 2007

We report our experience with a case of performing laparoscopy-assisted total gastrectomy along with pancreas-preserving splenectomy for treating early gastric cancer. laparoscopy-assisted total gastrectomy was planned for a 62-year-old male patient with a double early gastric cancer located in the upper and lower third of the stomach. Five trocars were placed and we used a harmonic scalpel to dissect the greater curvature. Enlarged splenic hilar lymph node was encountered and they were proved to be metastasis by frozen section biopsy. We then performed total gastrectomy with pancreas-preserving splenectomy for the purpose of completely dissecting the lymph nodes along the splenic artery and splenic hilum. We created a 4 cm sized longitudinal mini-laparotomy below the xiphoid process to remove the specimen, and anastomosis was done via the Roux-en-Y method. The patient was discharged on the 9th postoperative days after an uneventful recovery. Our experience shows that laparoscopy-assisted total gastrectomy with pancreas-preserving splenectomy is a relatively safe procedure for treating upper third early gastric cancer with metastatic splenic hilar lymph nodes.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.240-246
• /
• 1992

The effects of extracorporeal circulation on plateler count were studied in 120 patients. We measured platelet count before, during, after extracorporeal circulation, and postoperative 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11th days to evaluate the effects of total extracorporeal circulation time and types of oxygenator on changes of platelet count The patients were classified into group I [extracorporeal circulation time < 100 minutes, 45 patients], II [100 < extracorporeal circulation time < 200 minutes, 48 patients], III [extracorporeal circulation time >200 minutes, 27 patients], and also all patients were classified into group B [bubble oxygenator, 84 patients] and group M [membrane oxygenator, 36 patients]. The group I, II, III were subclassified into IB, IM, IIB, IIM, IIIB and IIIM according to the types of oxygenator. The results were as follows: 1. The platelet counts were reduced throughout extracorporeal circulation and in the early postoperative periods upto postoperative third day. 2. The platelet counts after postoperative 9th to 11th day increased significantly compared with those of preoperative levels. 3. After extracorporeal circulation, the platelet recovered gradually in all groups, especially faster in group I compared with those of group II and III. 4. The effect of the type of oxygenator on the recovery of platelet count was not significant. In conclusion, extracorporeal circulation time influenced the change of platelet count. Therefore, in order to prevent of decrease of platelet count associated with extracorporeal circulation time, the extracorporeal circulation time should be shortened.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.24
• /
• pp.10971-10975
• /
• 2015

Objective: To investigate bladder and intestinal function recovery and quality of sexual life after laparoscopic nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy (LNRH) for treatment of early invasive cervical carcinoma. Methods: Subjects included patients who underwent radical hysterectomy by laparotomy who were randomly assigned to 2 groups: 30 patients who underwent LNRH and 35 classical laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (LRH). We assessed the patients general clinical information, surgical characteristics, pathological findings, and adjuvant therapies. A urodynamic study was used to assess bladder function. Intestinal function recovery and quality of sexual life were evaluated by questionnaire. Results: No significant differences were found in age, surgery characteristics, pathological findings, adjuvant therapies, and main adverse effects between the 2 groups. The mean duration of the postoperative catheterization (DPC) in group LNRH was shorter than that in group LRH (P < 0.001). The maximum flow rate, maximum cystometric capacity, maximum detrusor pressure and urinary complications in group LNRH were better than those in group LRH. The quality of sexual life evaluated according to the female sexual function index (FSFI) was better in group LNRH than in those who underwent LRH. The intestinal function of patients in group LNRH also recovered better compared with patients in group LRH.