• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 2010

This paper provided a brief summary of the current strategic goals, activities, and impacts of the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) occupational injury research program. Three primary drivers (injury database, stakeholder input, and staff capacity) were used to define NIOSH research focuses to maximize relevance and impact of the NIOSH injury-prevention-research program. Injury data, strategic goals, program activities, and research impacts were presented with a focus on prevention of four leading causes of workplace injury and death in the US: motor vehicle incidents, falls, workplace violence, and machine and industrial vehicle incidents. This paper showcased selected priority goals, activities, and impacts of the NIOSH injury prevention program. The NIOSH contribution to the overall decrease in fatalities and injuries is reinforced by decreases in specific goal areas. There were also many intermediate outcomes that are on a direct path to preventing injuries, such as new safety regulations and standards, safer technology and products, and improved worker safety training. The outcomes serve as an excellent foundation to stimulate further research and worldwide partnership to address global workplace injury problems.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.643-649
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• 1994

We evaluated sixteen patients of traumatic diaphragmatic injuries that we have experienced from Jan. 1987 to Aug 1993. Age was ranged from 6 to 71 years, predominantly in the fourth and fifth decades. 13 were male and 3 were female, a ratio of 4.3: 1. Blunt trauma was develped in 11 [Lt 7, Rt 4], penetrating trauma in 5 [Lt 2, Rt 3]. Preoperative diagnosis of diaphragmatic injury was possible in 8 patients [72.2 %] in blunt trauma, and 1 patient [20 %] in penetrating trauma. 8 cases[54.5%] in blunt trauma, and 4 cases in penetrating trauma were treated within 24 hours,meanwhile, patients treated after 10 days were 3, all by blunt trauma.The repair of 16 cases were performed with thoracic approach in 4 cases, thoracoabdominal approach in 3 cases, and abdominal approach in 9 cases. The herniated organs in thorax were stomach [5], colon [3], liver [2], and pancreas [1]. Postoperative complication were developed in 9cases[56.3%] significantly related with delayed operation time [p < 0.01 ]. Hospital mortality was 12.5 % [2/16], and the causes of death were hypovolemic shock in one and hepatic failure due to portal vein rupture in another.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.279-283
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• 2021

Traumatic spinal cord infarction is a rare condition that causes serious paralysis. The regulation of spinal cord blood flow in injured spinal cords remains unknown. Spinal cord infarction or ischemia has been reported after cardiovascular interventions, scoliosis correction, or profound hypotension. In this case, a 52-year-old man revisited the emergency center with motor and sensory abnormalities in all four extremities 56 hours after a motor vehicle collision. Despite the clinical presentation and imaging examination, there were no specific findings on the patient's first visit to the trauma center. Cervical spine computed tomography angiography showed a narrow vertebral artery, and diffusion-weighted imaging revealed spinal cord infarction from C3 to C5 with high signal intensity. It should be kept in mind that delayed-onset spinal cord infarction may occur in minor or major trauma patients as a result of head and neck injuries.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.137-143
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• 2023

This study was conducted to analyze factors affecting the length of stay in children with injuries by determining relationships between length of stay and characteristics of children(aged 0 to 12) with injuries. 7,804 patients aged 0 to 12 who participated in the Korea Nation Hospital Discharge In-Depth Injury Surveys, got a diagnosis of sequelae of injuries and of other consequences of external causes(S00-T98), and were discharged between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020 were investigated. A frequency analysis, independent samples t-test, and ANOVA were performed. Also, to identify factors affecting the length of stay, a regression analysis was performed. The average length of stay for the patients investigated in this study was 5.5 days. The length of stay for school-age children(aged 7 to 12) and children who had either public or private coverage was higher than that for preschoolers(aged 0 to 6) and children who didn't have public or private coverage, respectively. The length of stay for children admitted to a hospital in a rural area(Jeolla-do or Gyeongsang-do) was higher than that for children admitted to a hospital in a metropolitan area and the length of stay for children admitted to a hospital that had 100-299 hospital beds was relatively long. However, children who first visited a hospital for outpatient care stayed relatively short in hospital and children who had been burned or injured in traffic crashes stayed relatively long in hospital. Children who got a secondary diagnosis and had a principal procedure or who died after being discharged were in hospital for a long time. The findings of this study shall be useful, as they identified characteristics related to the length of stay for Korean children with injuries and factors that determine the length of stay for those children by analyzing the national dataset, or more specifically, the data from the Korea National Hospital Discharge In-Depth Injury Surveys. The risk of child injuries can be easily reduced by taking actions to prevent them and providing safety education programs. The present study has provided essential baseline data for the provision of aggressive care for child injuries and the establishment of a range of policies for child injury prevention.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 2002

This study was intended to investigate injury rates of landscape trees planted in the reclaimed seaside areas and to analyse their causes in planting environment. The planting environment such as soil properties, reclaimed depth of soil, soil hardness, salt consistency of soil, and drainage system were surveyed in 8 reclaimed seaside areas in the middle and southern regions of the country. Injury rates of 42 species, 1,233 trees and growth of branches in 6 species. 130 trees were measured and analysed to fond out salt-resistant trees in the reclaimed lands. The results of the survey are as follows; the average injury rate of evergreen trees was 32%. which was much lower than that of deciduous trees as 52%. The lower injured trees in the 8 reclaimed lands were Pinus thunbergii, Pinus parvinora. Juniperus chinensis 'Kaizuka', Pinus koraiensis, Acer trifdum, Koelreuteria paniculata and Metasequoia glyptostroboides. The higher injured trees were Acer palmatum, Magnolia kobus. Lagerstroemia indica, Diospiros kaki, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Sorbus commixta, Prunus yedoensis, Pinus desinora, Chaenomeles sinensis, Albizzia julibrissin and Zelkowa serrata. At least the mounding of 1.7m depth of soil is needed from the tidal saline soil to the roots of trees to protect trees from salt injury Roots of trees were found to have infiltrated to 0.77m under the soil of which solidity was over 4.5kg/㎥. And 22 of total 25 soils were acid from pH 3.72 to pH 5.85. Injury rate of trees was much higher when they were detached from the sea, and planted on the drainage.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.408-415
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• 2005

Following a transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous(TRAM) flap breast reconstruction, denervated state of the flap causes the flap skin prone to thermal injury, calling for special attention. During the last 5 years, 69 breast reconstruction with 72 free TRAM flaps, were performed. Four out of thesse 69 patients sustained burn injury. Heat sources were a warm bag(n=2), heating pad(n=1) and warming light (n=1). The thermal injuries occured from 2 days to 3 months following the reconstruction. Three patients healed with conservative treatment, but one patient required debridement and skin graft. Initially 3 out of 4 patients with the burn had shown superficial 2nd degree burn with small blebs or bullae. However all 4 patients healed with scars. Mechanism of burn injuries of the denervated flap are known to be resulting from; 1) loss of behavioral protection due to denervation of flap with flap elevation and transfer, 2) loss of autonomic thermoregulatory control with heat dissipation on skin flap vasculature contributing to susceptibility of burn injury. 3) changes of immunologic and normal inflammatory response increasing thromboxane, and a fall in substance P & NGF (nerve growth factor). Including the abdominal flap donor site, sensory recovery of the reconstructed breast varies individually from 6 month even to 5 years postoperatively. During this period, wound healing is delayed, resulting in easier scarring compared to that observed in the sensate skin. Patients should be carefully informed and warned of possible burn injuries and taught to avoid exposure to heat source at least until 3 years postoperatively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.22-29
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• 2012

Robot related injuries in industrial accidents statistics during 2008~2010 have accounted for a total of 109 cases equivalent to 30~40 cases for each of those years. The number of injured compared to the dissemination of industrial robots(51,302 units/2004) can be regarded as quite low. However, the fatal injuries sustained by 7 (6.4%) out of 109 cases paints the stark reality of robot-related accident fatalities. It is a sad probability that as the automation process expands its use of industrial robots which have increased significantly in demand, the incidence of workplace accidents will also increase. Therefore, the incidence of accidents throughout the period of 2008~2010 has been analysed to prevent the injuries due to the increased use of industrial robots. In the analysis, the injuries occurred during the industrial robot operation accounted for 45.9% of the entire accidents. Thus, we examined the present status of the industrial robot operation to analyze the root cause of accidents occurred in our studied time period. We looked at a total of 469 workplaces. 456 workplaces responded in the year 2009 and survey studies were implemented at 13 of the 29 workplaces where work injuries were sustained in the year 2010. Even where protective measures and interlock devices were in place, our studies indicated that workers could access the robot area to perform the tasks in 188 sites(40.1%). Also, the 143 sites(30.5%) had control measures and equipment located in the safety fence. In addition, the robots found at 164 sites(35.0%) could be restarted without additional restarting operation. These three causes accounted for most of the workplace injuries during the industrial robot operations. Futhermore, we confirmed the fact that the protective measures of the current safety regulations were not strictly enforced. Based upon our studies and the investigation of the present status of the industrial robot operation, higher standards in training and supervision of workers in the robot operation must quickly be met in order to prevent these industrial injuries.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.166-172
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• 2017

Purpose: Thoracic traumas represent 10-15% of all traumas and are responsible for 25% of all trauma mortalities. Traumatic cardiac injury (TCI) is one of the major causes of death in trauma patients, rarely present in living patients who are transferred to the hospital. TCI is a challenge for trauma surgeons as it provides a short therapeutic window and the management is often dictated by the underlying mechanism and hemodynamic status. This study is to describe our experiences about emergency cardiac surgery in TCI. Methods: This is a retrospective clinical analysis of patients who had undergone emergency cardiac surgery in our trauma center from January 2014 to December 2016. Demographics, physiologic data, mechanism of injuries, the timing of surgical interventions, surgical approaches and outcomes were reviewed. Results: The number of trauma patients who arrived at our hospital during the study period was 9,501. Among them, 884 had chest injuries, 434 patients were evaluated to have over 3 abbreviated injury scale (AIS) about the chest. Cardiac surgeries were performed in 18 patients, and 13 (72.2%) of them were male. The median age was 47.0 years (quartiles 35.0, 55.3). Eleven patients (61.1%) had penetrating traumas. Prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) were performed in 4 patients (22.2%). All of them had undergone emergency department thoracotomy (EDT), and they were transferred to the operating room for definitive repair of the cardiac injury, but all of them expired in the intensive care unit. Most commonly performed surgical incision was median sternotomy (n=13, 72.2%). The majority site of injury was right ventricle (n=11, 61.1%). The mortality rate was 22.2% (n=4). Conclusions: This study suggests that penetrating cardiac injuries are more often than blunt cardiac injury in TCI, and the majority site of injury is right ventricle. Also, it suggests prehospital CPR and EDT are significantly responsible for high mortality in TCI.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.128-135
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• 2008

Purpose: As the care of surgical patients becomes increasingly complex and catheter-based techniques are more frequently applied, the pattern of iatrogenic vascular injuries may be increasing. Major vascular injuries can jeopardize a patient's life or limb survival. The purpose of this study was to examine the current etiology and prognosis for iatrogenic vascular injuries. Methods: We reviewed medical records of 29 cases of iatrogenic vascular injury that were treated Seoul National University Bundang Hospital between October 2003 and October 2008. We studied clinical variables including demographics, cause of injury, clinical presentations, management and prognosis. Results: The mean age was 60.8 years (range: 25-86), and the male to female ratio was 1.9 : 1. The causes of injuries were operation related complication in 18 cases (62.1%), endovascular intervention and diagnostic angiography in 11 cases (37.9%). The types of vascular injury were partial severance in 14 cases, pseudoaneurysm in 8, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in 3, thrombosis in 2, complete severance in 2. Especially, device related complication including percutaneous closing device were occurred in 9 and the others came from inadvertent physician's procedure. Primary repair were done in 12 cases, end-to-end anastomosis in 5, interposition graft in 4, ligation in 2, patch angioplasty in 1, peudoaneurysm excision and arteriorrhaphy in 1, hematoma evacuation in 1, and endovascular repair in 3. There were 2 cases of mortality, one of them due to hemorrhagic shock and the other due to septic shock. Conclusion: Proper selection of treatment modalities should be important to have better outcome according to the type of injury as well as anatomical location. Each physician should be familiar to new device as well as patient's topographical feature. Immediate referral to vascular specialist is also essential to reduce morbidity.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.2 s.24
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• pp.224-237
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• 1988

To determine the causes of and related factors to childhood injuries, the emergency room records and inpatient medical records were reviewed for 4,849 injured children out of 15,790 pediatric patients(<15 years old) who visited the emergency rooms of 3 university hospitals and 2 general hospitals in Taegu from 1 January to 31 December 1987. Out of total injured children, 54.675 were 3-8 years old and the male to female ratio of the total injured children was about 2:1. The leading causes of injury were falls and slips (29.1%) and traffic accident(28.2%). The frequency of injury was higher in May-October than the rest of months and 51.6% of the injuries occurred between 15 and 20 o'clock. Falls and slips took place most frequently at the stairway(25.7%). The most common interpersonal violence was inflicted injuries(85.6%) and there were 11 child rapes. Dog bites accounted for 67.6% of all biting injuries and it occured 2.9 times more in male than in female. CO intoxication was the most common cause of poisoning (45.3%) and scalding accounted for 85.2% of all burns. Common places of drownings were river (32.2%), swimming pool (22.6%) and construction site(19.3%). To prevent childhood injuries, it is recommended to eliminate the hazardous environmental factors, to provide safe playgrounds, to educate the children for safety from kindergarten and the general public through mass communication, to establish a strict safety standard for houses, public buildings and facilities, and playgrounds.