• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.246-250
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• 2015

Objectives: This study investigated patients with oral and maxillofacial lacerations who visited the emergency room over a three-year period in an effort to determine the optimal treatment for these injuries. Materials and Methods: This study examined 1,742 patients with oral and maxillofacial lacerations with 2,014 different laceration locations who visited the emergency room of Pusan National University Hospital (Busan, Korea) over three years, from January 2011 to December 2013. Patients were classified by sex, age, visit day, cause of injury, injury site, and the presence or absence of soft tissue and tooth injuries. Results: The male to female ratio was 2.50:1. Patients under 10 years old were seen most frequently. Most emergency room visits were on weekends. Among intra-oral lacerations, the lip area was the most vulnerable site; among extra-oral lacerations, the chin area was most frequently injured. The most frequent etiology was a slip down. Most lacerations occurred without bone fracture or tooth damage. Conclusion: Laceration may differ in large part as compared with the fracture. Therefore, it is necessary to continue collecting data on oral and maxillofacial lacerations to establish optimal emergency room diagnosis and treatment strategies.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.496-498
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• 2010

Purpose: Lacerations requiring formal wound closure compose a significant number of all childhood injuries presenting to the emergency department. The problem with conventional suture technique are that suture removal is quite cumbersome, especially in children. Unwanted soft tissue damage can result in the process of suture removal, which calls for sedation, stressful for both medical personnel and child. The purpose of this study is to introduce the convenient suture technique for pediatric facial lacerations. Methods: Children under the age of four, presenting to the emergency department with facial lacerations were enrolled in the study. From March 2008 to June 2009, 63 patients (41 males and 22 females) with an average age of 1.4 years were treated with our convenient suture technique using utilized a loop suspended above a double, flat tie. Clean, tension free wounds were treated with our technique, wounds with significant skin defect and concomitant fractures were excluded. Results: The Patients were followed-up in 1, 3 and 5 days postoperatively. On the third hospital visit, suture removal was done by simply cutting the loop suspended above the wound margin and gently pulling the thread with forceps. There were no significant differences in the rates of infection and dehiscence compared with conventional suture technique. Conclusion: The use of our technique was to be simple with similar operative time compared with conventional suture technique. Removal of suture materials were easy without unwanted injuries to the surrounding tissue which resulted in less discomfort for the patient and greater parental satisfaction, minimized the complications. It can be considered as a viable alternative in the repair of pediatric facial lacerations.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.649-655
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• 2018

Objective: This paper reports the possibility of using of a locking horizontal mattress suture technique in repairing lacerations that are difficult to suture with staples. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively over a 6-month period regarding the routine repair of scalp lacerations: those in areas injured by a high energy blunt mechanism, continued to bleed after pressure, nonlinear or damaged skin repaired with a locking horizontal mattress technique, and simple interrupted technique. The effects of the two techniques used to repair scalp lacerations on wound healing, complication rate, and patient satisfaction were examined. The categorical variables are expressed as the number and percent. A Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test was used for statistical analysis. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Thirty-seven consecutive patients with scalp lacerations presented for care. Wound closure was accomplished with the locking horizontal mattress sutures in 40.5% (n=15) (median length, 5.0 cm; interquartile range [IQR], 4.0-7.0 cm). Simple interrupted sutures (median length, 4 cm; IQR, 3.0-5.0 cm) were used in 59.5% (n=22) (P=0.015). The frequency of additional bandage compression (P=0.008), frequency of exudative hemorrhage (P=0.018), and suture mark frequency at suture removal (P=0.047) were significantly lower in the locking horizontal mattress group. Conclusion: The locking horizontal mattress suture, which has the advantage of a horizontal mattress suture, may be one of the ways that can be used alternatively to treat scalp lacerations that difficult to suture with staples.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2015

Background Facial laceration is the most common injury encountered in the emergency room in the plastic surgery field, and optimal treatment is important. However, few authors have investigated this injury in all age groups or performed follow-up visit after repair. In the present study, the medical records of patients with lacerations in the facial area and underwent primary repair in an emergency room over a 2-year period were reviewed and analyzed. Methods Medical records of 3,234 patients with lacerations in facial area and underwent primary repair in an emergency room between March 2011 and February 2013 were reviewed and identified. Results All the 3,234 patients were evaluated, whose ratio of men to women was 2.65 to 1. The forehead was the most common region affected and a slip down was the most common mechanism of injury. In terms of monthly distribution, May had the highest percentage. 1,566 patients received follow-up managements, and 58 patients experienced complications. The average days of follow-up were 9.8. Conclusions Proportion of male adolescents was significantly higher than in the other groups. Facial lacerations exhibit a 'T-shaped' facial distribution centered about the forehead. Careful management is necessary if a laceration involves or is located in the oral cavity. We were unable to long term follow-up most patients. Thus, it is necessary to encourage patients and give them proper education for follow-up in enough period.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2015

Background Topical anesthetics, such as eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream, can be applied to reduce pain before minor procedure. This trial evaluated EMLA as pretreatment for facial lacerations and compared pain, discomfort and overall satisfaction. Methods This trial included consecutive emergency department patients ${\geq}16years$ of age who presented with simple facial lacerations. At triage, lacerations were allotted to either the routine processing group or EMLA pretreatment group according to date of admission. Initially, the emergency department doctors inspected each laceration, which were dressed with saline-soaked gauze. In the pretreatment group, EMLA cream was applied during wound inspection. The plastic surgeon then completed primary closure following the local injection of an anesthetic. After the procedure, all patients were given a questionnaire assessing pain using the 10-point visual analog scale (VAS) ("no pain" to "worst pain"). All questionnaires were collected by the emergency department nurse before discharge. Results Fifty patients were included in the routine processing group, and fifty patients were included in the EMLA pretreatment group. Median age was 39.9 years, 66% were male, and the average laceration was 2.67 cm in length. The EMLA pretreatment group reported lower pain scores in comparison with the routine processing group (2.4 vs. 4.5 on VAS, P<0.05), and lower discomfort scores during the procedure (2.0 vs. 3.3, P=0.60). Overall satisfaction was significantly higher in the EMLA pretreatment group (7.8 vs. 6.1, P<0.05). Conclusions Pretreating facial lacerations with EMLA topical cream aids patients by reducing pain and further enhancing overall satisfaction during laceration treatment.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.494-497
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• 2012

Traumatic lacerations are common in the orofacial region as a result of accidents. Due to the frequent movement of the skin around the mandible, scars in that area are more likely to widen or become hypertrophic. Treatment of facial laceration was performed on three patients and followed by regular check-up. It was discovered that the scars have become hypertrophic, so steroid injections were used. The results were satisfactory with the decrease in sizes and hardnes of the scar. Facial scarring is a particularly distressing phenomenon and has always been a challenge to treat as the scars are more likely to widen or become hyphertrophied due to the frequent movement of the muscle in the facial area. We confirmed that the positive effect of steroid on hypertrophic scars. So, we suggest that proper treatment and periodic follow-up, adjuvant treatments especially steroid injection is necessary in patients with lacerations.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.257-262
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• 2021

Purpose: Pediatric hand trauma is common and sometimes causes deformity or disability. The incidence and etiologies of hand trauma in children are different from those in adults. This study analyzed the characteristics of pediatric hand trauma cases and patients over a 15-year period. Methods: We conducted a retrospective medical record review of 3,432 children (2,265 boys, 1,167 girls, under 18 years of age) with hand injuries from January 2005 to December 2019. We evaluated the sex distribution and injury etiologies. Injuries were classified by type as burns, amputations, crushing injuries, lacerations, extensor and flexor tendon injuries, open and closed fractures, and nerve injuries. Results: Among the pediatric hand injury patients, males were predominant (1.94:1). Simple lacerations (58.4%) were the most common injury type, followed by fractures (22.8%). Lacerations and burns tended to be common in younger age groups, while tendon injuries, nerve injuries, and crushing injuries were more frequently encountered in older age groups. Conclusions: Hand trauma prevention strategies should be established considering the frequent trauma etiologies in specific age groups. An awareness of age-specific characteristics of pediatric hand trauma patients will be helpful to prevent hand trauma.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.38 no.7 s.374
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• pp.656-663
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• 2000

Recently dental emergency patients tend to increase and diversify because of increased living quality and acknowledgement of health care. We performed this study to understand the pattern of dental emergency and perform the adequate diagnosis and treatment. From August 1998 to July 1999, we inverstigated the rate of dental emergency, distribution according to disease pattern, monthly distribution, and types of emergency treatment from all the emergency patients that visited emergency medicine of Daejin Medical Center, Jesaeng Hospital. There were 266 dental patients(0.978%) from total 27,192 emergency patients. Types of emergency situations included lip lacerations, teeth fracture, teeth missing or avulsion, TMJ contusion, mandible fracture, tongue laceration, toothache, teeth luxation, and so forth. Dental emergency had highest frequency in July. The most common treatments included primary closure of soft tissue lacerations, fixations of luxated teeth and medications.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.176-180
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• 2019

The growing use of laparoscopy in elective surgery has led to its increase utilization in emergency surgery. However, the employment of laparoscopy in abdominal trauma is still unusual. Here in we report a case of a patient with blunt abdominal trauma that resulted in a combination of exceptional traumatic lesions, diaphragmatic and bladder lacerations. Both injuries were diagnosed and successfully resolved by laparoscopy. The report of this type of lesions and resolution is extremely rare, being this the second case described in the international literature. This article intends to show that laparoscopy may not only be used as a diagnostic tool, but also as a therapeutic instrument in selected cases of blunt abdominal trauma.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2011

Purpose: The object of this study is to compare the patient satisfaction in the view of scarring, cost, and hospital stay between the conventional suture method and a method using Histoacryl$^{(R)}$ (2-N-butylcyanoacrylate) adhesive for treating facial lacerations in the emergency department. Method: This study is a randomized prospective trial, which was conducted from December 2009 to January 2010. The participants include 109 patients who visited the emergency room in Deajon Eulji Medical Center. The ages ranged from 1 to 59 (mean age of 18.7), and all had facial lacerations of less than 3 cm. In order to treat the facial lacerations, an emergency medicine doctor used tissue adhesive (2-N-butylcyanoacrylate, Histoacryl$^{(R)}$) for 41 patients in the experimental group, and a plastic surgeon performed conventional suturing for 68 patients in the control group. The ER-stay and the primary treatment fee were compared in the two groups, and the scarring was evaluated 10 to 11 months from suturing by using the Modified Hollander Method and the 10-cm scaled VAS (visual analogue scale: score 0=no scar, score 10=very severe scar) Result: The ER stay was 76 minutes for the experimental group and 107 minutes for the control group, showing that statistically significantly less time of 31 minutes was taken in the experimental group. The cost of the experimental group was 40000 won (50.1%) more expensive than the control group, with an average cost of 121900 won for the experimental group and 81200 won for the control group. As for scar evaluation, 10.56 months after suturing, the experimental group showed a better result with a score of 2.6 compared to a score of 3.4 in the control group; however, this difference was not statistically significant ($p$ <0.05). As to a detailed evaluation of scar characteristics, the experimental group had a statistically significantly better result in scar elevation, with a score of 0.6 compared to a score of 1.65 for the control group. Conclusion: If appropriate patients are selected, the method using tissue adhesive directly applied by an EM doctor not only decreases ER stay but also creates similar patients satisfaction, with statistically better result in scar elevation, compared to the conventional suture method; thus, ultimately general patient satisfaction is increased.