• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.144-151
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• 2011

Objectives : To report the cases of forgotten needles found in the patients' bodies since Dong-guk University Ilsan Hospital opened, and arouse considerable attention to prevent recurrence. Methods : Oriental medical doctors in the hospital has applied acupuncture on patients' bodies in case of need, and the other staffs removed the needles after treatment. Results : All the patients in the cases had cerebrovascular disease with paralysis, aphasia, cognitive disorder and disturbance of consciousness as well as dysphagia requiring gastrotomy tube and dysfunction of respiration requiring tracheal cannula. The pathways the acupuncture needles were passing through are presumed to be transtracheal via the hole of tracheal cannula in two cases, and transgastrointestinal via mouth or the opening of gastrotomy tube. The needle was excreted with stool without any harm to the patient in the latter case, while the impact of the needles on the respiratory system or thorax of the patients in the former two cases is ambiguous. The hospital has taken some measures to prevent recurrence. Conclusions : There are not a few at high-risk of occurrence of forgotten needles that might induce medical problems among patients in oriental medical clinics or hospitals. Authors expect this report arouses all the people involved in the whole procedure of acupuncture treatment, including oriental medical doctors, nurses, nurse-assistants and caregivers considerable attentions to the possible occurrence and risk of forgotten needles.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study is to report improvement of symptoms after lobectomy of male breast cancer lung metastasis treated with Korean Medicine based Integrative Cancer Treatment (ICT). Methods: A male left breast cancer patient diagnosed with metastasis on lung at July 2019. After Video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) left lower lobe (LLL) lobectomy and En bloc wedge resection the patient visited the Daejeon korean medicine hospital of Daejeon university East West Cancer Center (EWCC) to treat operation-site (op-site) pain, dysphagia, anorexia with Korean Medicine Treatment. The patient was treated with Korean Medicine based ICT for an approximately 20 days. The clinical outcomes were measured by National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event (NCI-CTCAE), Numeral rating scale (NRS) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). The safety of treatment was verified by blood tests. Results: After treatment, op-site pain was improved from NRS 9 to 6, dysphagia and anorexia were relieved from NRS 9 to 2. And ECOG score of the patient was improved from grade 2 to 1. Conclusion: This case study suggests that Korean Medicine based ICT may help to improve post operative sequelae in metastatic lung cancer patient.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.155-173
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• 2018

Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is an unwanted adverse event in any operation. It leads to functional limitations and psychological trauma for patients, and leaves the operative team with feelings of failure and humiliation. Therefore, it is crucial that preventive strategies for CPSP are considered in high-risk operations. Various techniques have been implemented to reduce the risk with variable success. Identifying the risk factors for each patient and applying a timely preventive strategy may help patients avoid the distress of chronic pain. The preventive strategies include modification of the surgical technique, good pain control throughout the perioperative period, and preoperative psychological intervention focusing on the psychosocial and cognitive risk factors. Appropriate management of CPSP patients is also necessary to reduce their suffering. CPSP usually has a neuropathic pain component; therefore, the current recommendations are based on data on chronic neuropathic pain. Hence, voltage-dependent calcium channel antagonists, antidepressants, topical lidocaine and topical capsaicin are the main pharmacological treatments. Paracetamol, NSAIDs and weak opioids can be used according to symptom severity, but strong opioids should be used with great caution and are not recommended. Other drugs that may be helpful are ketamine, clonidine, and intravenous lidocaine infusion. For patients with failed pharmacological treatment, consideration should be given to pain interventions; examples include transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, botulinum toxin injections, pulsed radiofrequency, nerve blocks, nerve ablation, neuromodulation and surgical management. Physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and lifestyle modifications are also useful for relieving the pain and distress experienced by CPSP patients.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.296-304
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• 2018

Epiduroscopy is defined as a percutaneous, minimally invasive endoscopic investigation of the epidural space. Periduroscopy is currently used mainly as a diagnostic tool to directly visualize epidural adhesions in patients with failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), and as a therapeutic action in patients with low back pain by accurately administering drugs, releasing inflammation, washing the epidural space, and mechanically releasing the scars displayed. Considering epiduroscopy a minimally invasive technique should not lead to underestimating its potential complications. The purpose of this review is to summarize and explain the mechanisms of the side effects strictly related to the technique itself, leaving aside complications considered typical for any kind of extradural procedure (e.g. adverse reactions due to the administration of drugs or bleeding) and not fitting the usual concept of epiduroscopy for which the data on its real usefulness are still lacking. The most frequent complications and side effects of epiduroscopy can be summarized as non-persistent post-procedural low back and/or leg discomfort/pain, transient neurological symptoms (headache, hearing impairment, paresthesia), dural puncture with or without post dural puncture headache (PDPH), post-procedural visual impairment with retinal hemorrhage, encephalopathy resulting in rhabdomyolysis due to a dural tear, intradural cyst, as well as neurogenic bladder and seizures. We also report for first time, to our knowledge, a case of symptomatic pneumocephalus after epiduroscopy, and try to explain the reason for this event and the precautions to avoid this complication.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7107-7110
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• 2013

Malignant bowel obstruction (MBO), an occasional complication in patients with advanced urological cancer, causes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting leading to suffering which severely impairs quality of life (QOL). Drug therapy, especially octreotide, a synthetic analog of somatostatin, is reportedly effective in controlling the symptoms of MBO. In the present study, we administered octreotide to urological cancer patients with MBO and evaluated the improvement of subjective symptoms, oral intake, and nasogastric intubation. Fourteen terminally ill urological cancer patients suffering with MBO were included (age range 55-92, 10 male, 4 female). Octreotide was administered at $300{\mu}g/day$ to those patients subcutaneously as a continuous injection. Significant improvements in subjective symptoms were observed in thirteen patients (92.8%), and ten patients (71.4%) were able to resume oral intake. Four patients required nasogastric drainage before the administration of octreotide, but nasogastric intubation was discontinued in all these cases after the use of octreotide. Early initiation of octreotide resulted in better improvement of MBO symptoms, and no adverse event was observed in any of the patients. These results revealed that $300{\mu}g/day$ dose of octreotide is safe and effective for managing gastrointestinal symptoms of terminally ill urological cancer patients with MBO. We also recommend starting the treatment with ocreotide as soon as MBO is diagnosed.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.413-434
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• 2010

Wireless sensor networks are usually characterized by dense deployment of energy constrained nodes. Due to the usage of a large number of sensor nodes in uncontrolled hostile or harsh environments, node failure is a common event in these systems. Another common reason for node failure is the exhaustion of their energy resources and node inactivation. Such failures can have adverse effects on the quality of the real-time services in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). To avoid such degradations, it is necessary that the failures be recovered in a proper manner to sustain network operation. In this paper we present a dynamic Energy efficient Real-Time Job Allocation (ERTJA) algorithm for handling node failures in a cluster of sensor nodes with the consideration of communication energy and time overheads besides the nodes' characteristics. ERTJA relies on the computation power of cluster members for handling a node failure. It also tries to minimize the energy consumption of the cluster by minimum activation of the sleeping nodes. The resulting system can then guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS) of the cluster application. Further, when the number of sleeping nodes is limited, the proposed algorithm uses the idle times of the active nodes to engage a graceful QoS degradation in the cluster. Simulation results show significant performance improvements of ERTJA in terms of the energy conservation and the probability of meeting deadlines compared with the other studied algorithms.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.75 no.6
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• pp.256-259
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• 2013

Imatinib mesylate is a targeted therapy that acts by inhibiting tyrosine kinase of the bcr-abl fusion oncoprotein, which is specific to chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and the c-transmembrane receptor, which is specific to gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Interstitial pneumonitis is a rare adverse event of imatinib therapy. It is clinically difficult to distinguish from infectious pneumonia, which can frequently occur due to the underlying disease. The standard treatment for imatinib-induced pneumonitis is to discontinue the medication and optionally administer corticosteroids. However, there are a few cases of successful retrial with imatinib. We describe a case of successful rechallenge of imatinib in a patient with imatinib-induced interstitial pneumonitis and CML without a recurrence of the underlying disease after 3 months of follow-up.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.177-181
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• 2016

Purpose: The International Organization for Standardization-5fluorouracil (FU) 10 trial found that bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was not inferior to S-1 in the treatment of gastric cancer (GC). Continuous 5-FU and the rapid injection of 5-FU have different anti-cancer effects. Thus, bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of all patients with S-1 or capecitabine-resistant, unresectable, or recurrent GC treated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin between January 2010 and December 2015 at Hokkaido University Hospital. The bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin regimen consisted of intravenous l-leucovorin ($250mg/m^2/2h$) and bolus 5-FU ($600mg/m^2$) administered once weekly followed by a 2-week rest period; each cycle was repeated every 8 weeks. Results: A total of 14 patients were identified. The disease control rate was 35.7%. The median progression-free survival was 1.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3~2.0 months), and the median overall survival was 6.3 months (95% CI, 4.7~7.9 months). No patient died from treatment-related causes. The most common severe adverse event associated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was neutropenia, which occurred in 21.4% of patients. Conclusions: Bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. We are planning a multi-center prospective phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment for pre-treated unresectable or recurrent GC to confirm the results of this limited, retrospective study.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.449-454
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• 2011

Recently, jawbone osteonecrosis has been largely reported as a potential adverse effect of bisphosphonate (BP)administration. Currently available published incidence data for BRONJ are based on retrospective studies and estimates of cumulative incidence range from 0.8 to 12%. The mandible is more commonly affected than the maxilla (2:1 ratio), and 60-70% of cases are preceded by a dental surgical procedure. The signs and symptoms that may occur before the appearance of clinical evident osteonecrosis include changes in the health of periodontal tissues, non-healing mucosal ulcers, loose teeth and unexplained soft-tissue infection. Tooth extraction as a precipitating event is a common observation. The significant benefits that bisphosphonates offer to patients clearly surpass the risk of potential side effects; however, any patient for whom prolonged bisphosphonate therapy is indicated, should be provided with preventive dental care in order to minimize the risk of developing this severe condition.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6237-6241
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• 2015

Usage of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) has gained popularity over the past few years. However, very little is known about TCAM use among Malaysian cancer patients. This study aimed to identify the determinants of TCAM usage among cancer patients with determination of relationships between demographic factors, patient satisfaction with conventional treatment, knowledge on TCAM and healthcare professional influence. Patient's perceptions towards TCAM were also determined. A simple random convenient sampling method was used to recruit 354 patients from Hospital Kuala Lumpur between February to April 2013. All were directly interviewed with a structured questionnaire. In this study, 172 respondents were TCAM users. There was no significant differences between demographic background of respondents in the usage of TCAM. Minimal correlation was found between patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment and usage of TCAM (r=0.091). A poor correlation was found between healthcare professional's influence and TCAM usage (r=-0.213) but the results suggested that increase in influence would decrease TCAM usage. Patient TCAM knowledge correlated negatively with the TCAM usage (r=-0.555) indicated that cancer patients are less likely to use TCAM when they have more TCAM knowledge. Healthcare professionals should be fully equipped with the necessary TCAM knowledge while maintaining patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment. They should also intervene on patient TCAM usage where a potential drug interaction or a harmful adverse event can occur.