• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.510-516
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• 2014

Background: Acute cerebral infarction is a major risk factor for postoperative neurologic complications in cardiac surgery. However, the outcomes associated with acute silent cerebral infarction (ASCI) have not been not well established. Few studies have reported the postoperative outcomes of these patients in light of preoperative Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI). We studied the postoperative neurologic outcomes of patients with preoperative ASCI detected by DWI. Methods: We retrospectively studied 32 patients with preoperative ASCI detected by DWI. None of the patients had preoperative neurologic symptoms. The mean age at operation was $68.8{\pm}9.5$ years. Five patients had previous histories of stroke. Four patients had been diagnosed with infective endocarditis. Single cerebral infarct lesions were detected in 16 patients, double lesions in 13, and multiple lesions (>5) in three. The median size of the infarct lesions was 4 mm (range, 2 to 25 mm). The operations of three of the 32 patients were delayed pending follow-up DWI studies. Results: There were two in-hospital mortalities. Neurologic complications also occurred in two patients. One patient developed extensive cerebral infarction unrelated to preoperative infarct lesions. One patient showed sustained delirium over one week but recovered completely without any neurologic deficits. In two patients, postoperative DWI confirmed that no significant changes had occurred in the lesions. Conclusion: Patients with preoperative ASCI showed excellent postoperative neurologic outcomes. Preoperative ASCI was not a risk factor for postoperative neurologic deterioration.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 1996

Circulatory arrest under deep hypothermia is an important auxiliary means for cardiac surgery, especially useful in pediatric patients. However, its clinical safety, particularly with regard to the neurologic outcome after long duration of circulatory arrest, is still not established. This study is a review of the eight years'clinical experience of hypothermic circulatory arrest at the Seoul national University Children's Hospital. During an eight-year period from January 1986 through December 1993, a total of 589 consecutive cardiac operations were done using circulatory arrest under deep hypothermia. Among them, 434 consecutive patients, in whom the duration of arrest was 20 minutes or more, are the subject of this study. The duration of arrest ranged from 20 minutes to 82 minutes (mean = 38.7 minutes) under rectal temperature in the range from 12.5$^{\circ}C$ to 25.8$^{\circ}C$. Early neurologic abnormalities occurred in 47 patients : seizure attacks in 28 patients, motor paralyses with or w thout seizure in 12, blindness in 2, and no recovery of consciousness in 5 patients. The rate of incidence of early neurologic abnormalities was calculated at 15.7%. 25 patients showed late neuropsychologic sequelae, such as motor paralysis (9 patients), recurrent seizures (6), developmental delay (8), and definitely low intelligence (2). The rate of incidence of late neurologic sequelae was 8.5%, By statistical analysis, the following factors were identified as the risk factors for post-arrest neurologic abnormalities ; 1) long duration of circulatory arrest, 2) lower-than-ideal body weight, 3) preexisting neurological abnormalities, 4) associated non-cardiovascular congenital anouialies, and 5) low blood pressure during the early post-arrest period. It is concluded that circulatory arrest under deep hypothermia is a relatively safe means for pediatric cardiac surgery with acceptable risk. However, to warrant maximal safety, it is desirable to limit the duration of arrest to less th n 40 minutes. In addition, it is our contention that the early post-arrest period is a very critical period during which maintenance of adequate perfusion pressure in important for the neurologic outcome.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.967-975
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• 2019

Objective: To evaluate whether the combination of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and ¹¹C-methionine positron emission tomography (¹¹C-MET PET) could increase accurate diagnostic sensitivity for non-enhancing supratentorial gliomas. Materials and Methods: Between February 2012 and December 2017, 109 patients with non-enhanced supratentorial lesions on contrast-enhanced MRI were enrolled. Each patient underwent MRS and ¹¹C-MET PET before treatment. A lesion was considered to be a glioma when either the MRS or ¹¹C-MET PET results reached the diagnostic threshold. The radiological diagnosis was compared with the pathological diagnosis or medical diagnostic criteria. Results: The sensitivity and specificity were 60.0% and 50.0% for MRS and 75.8% and 50.0% for ¹¹C-MET PET, respectively. Upon combining the two modalities, the sensitivity and specificity of the imaging-based diagnosis prior to surgery reached 89.5% and 42.9%, respectively. Statistically significant differences in the sensitivities were observed between the combined and individual approaches (MRS alone, 89.5% vs. 60.0%, p < 0.001; ¹¹C-MET PET alone, 89.5% vs. 75.8%, p = 0.001). However, no significant differences in specificity were observed between the combined and individual modalities. Conclusion: The combination of MRS and ¹¹C-MET PET findings significantly increases accurate diagnostic sensitivity for non-enhancing supratentorial gliomas without significantly lowering the specificity. This finding suggests the potential of the combined MRS and ¹¹C-MET PET approach in clinical applications.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.948-951
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• 2001

A 43 years old female patient who had been diagnosed as having valvular heart disease but had not received any treatment invited and admitted due to progressive dyspnea. She was diagnosed as having aortic and mitral valve stenosis and regurgitation. Neurologic symptoms developed suddenly therefore, surgery was performed. In the operation field, there were many fungating tissue around the mitral valve annulus and left atrial wall. After operation, no neurologic symptoms were observed and pathologist revealed that fungating tissue was papillary fibroleastoma. The patient recovered and was followed in outpatients department.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.534-539
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• 2017

Objective : Patients with hematological malignancies frequently encounter spine-related symptoms, which are caused by disease itself or process of treatment. However, there is still lack of knowledge on their epidemiology and clinical courses. The purpose of this article is to review clinical presentations and surgical results for spinal involvement of hematologic malignancies. Methods : From January 2011 to September 2014, 195 patients (98 males and 97 females) suffering from hematological malignancies combined with spinal problems were retrospectively analyzed for clinical and radiological characteristics and their clinical results. Results : The most common diagnosis of hematological malignancy was multiple myeloma (96 patients, 49.7%), followed by chronic myeloid leukemia (30, 15.2%), acute myeloid leukemia (22, 11.2%), and lymphoma (15, 7.56%). The major presenting symptoms were mechanical axial pain (132, 67.7%) resulting from pathologic fractures, and followed by radiating pain (49, 25.1%). Progressive neurologic deficits were noted in 15 patients (7.7%), which revealed as cord compression by epidural mass or compressive myelopathy combined with pathologic fractures. Reconstructive surgery for neurologic compromise was done in 16 patients. Even though surgical intervention was useful for early paralysis (Frankel grade D or E), neurologic recovery was not satisfactory for the progressed paralysis (Frankel grade A or B). Conclusion : Hematological malignancies may cause various spinal problems related to disease progression or consequences of treatments. Conservative and palliative treatments are mainstay for these lesions. However, timely surgical interventions should be considered for the cases of pathologic fractures with progressive neurologic compromise.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.790-798
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• 1999

Background: As the early outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG) has been stabilized, neurologic complication has now become one of the most important morbidity. The aim of this study was to find out the risk factors associated with the neurologic complications after CABG. Material and Method: In 351 patients who underwent CABG, the incidence and features of neurologic complications, with associated perioperative risk factors, were retrospectively reviewed. Neurologic complication was defined as a new cerebral infarction confirmed by postoperative neurologic examination and radiologic studies, or delayed recovery of consciousness and orientation for more than 24 hours after the operation. Result: Neurologic complications occurred in 18 patients(5.1%), of these nine(2.6%) were diagnosed as having new cerebral infarctions(stroke). Stroke was manifested as motor paralysis in four patients, mental retardation or orientation abnormality in four, and brain death in one. Statistical analysis revealed the following variables as significant risk factors for neurologic complications by both univariate and multivariate analyses: cardiopulmonary bypass longer than 180 minutes, atheroma of the ascending aorta, carotid artery stenosis detected by Duplex sonography, and past history of cerebrovascular accident or transient ischemic attack. Age over 65 years, aortic calcification detected by simple X-ray, and intraoperative myocardial infarction were significant risk factors by univariate analysis only. Neither the severity of carotid artery stenosis nor technical modifications such as cannulation of the aortic arch or single clamp technique, which were expected to affect the inciden e of neurologic complications, had significant relationship with the incidence. Conclusion: This study confirmed the strong association between neurologic complications after CABG and atherosclerosis of the arterial system. Therefore, to minimize the incidence of neurologic complications, systematic evaluation focused on atherosclerotic lesions of the arterial system followed by adequate alteration of operative strategy is needed.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.799-802
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• 2009

Purpose: Schwannoma is one of common neoplasm in the central and peripheral nervous systems. However, schwannoma of sciatic nerve is rare, especially large schwannoma arising in sciatic nerve is extremely rare. This is a report of our experience with large schwannoma arising in sciatic nerve with minimal neurologic symptoms. Methods: A 65 - year - old man presented with palpable mass in middle portion of posterior thigh. No definitive neurologic deficits were detected on physical examinations. CT and sonography showed well - defined mass with large dimension. The mass was excised and confirmed histologically as a schwannoma. In postoperative period, NCS and EMG were followed. Results: The patient complained of difficulty in dorsiflexion of ipsilateral ankle joint postoperatively. NCS and EMG obtained immediately and showed sciatic neuropathy. After 2 months postoperatively, NCS and EMG were followed and abnormal findings of previous NCS and EMG were not found. Dorsiflexion of ankle joint was improved to normal range of motion. Conclusion: We report a rare case of large schwannoma arising in sciatic nerve with no definitive neurologic symptoms.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-332
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• 1993

Breakdown of the normal protective function of the larynx, either through primary or neurologic cause, leads to chronic aspiration, recurrent pneumonitis and possibly death. Lindemann`s tracheoesophageal diversion has three main advantages; first, it eliminates intractable aspiration in all patients who underwent the procedure, second, it preserves larynx, and third, if the underlying neurologic condition is recorved, the procedure can be reversed. We had performed tracheoesophageal diversion in two cases of intractable aspiration pneumonia patients. The postoperative courses were uneventful and they were receiving oral alimentation on the 22th and 9th postoperative days respectively, and could be discharged on 43th and 20th postoperative days respectively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.332-337
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• 2011

Background: The optimal timing of surgery for infective endocarditis complicated by embolic stroke is unclear. We compared early versus delayed surgery in these patients. Materials and Methods: Between 1992 and 2007, 56 consecutive patients underwent open cardiac surgery for the treatment of infective endocarditis complicated by acute septic embolic stroke, 34 within 2 weeks (early group) and 22 more than 2 weeks (delayed group) after the onset of stroke. Results: The mean age at time of surgery was $45.7{\pm}14.8$ years. Stroke was ischemic in 42 patients and hemorrhagic in 14. Patients in the early group were more likely to have highly mobile, large (>1 cm in diameter) vegetation and less likely to have hemorrhagic infarction than those in the delayed group. There were two (3.7%) intraoperative deaths, both in the early group and attributed to neurologic aggravation. Among the 54 survivors, 4 (7.1%), that is, 2 in each group, showed neurologic aggravation. During a median follow-up of 61.7 months (range, 0.4~170.4 months), there were 5 late deaths. Overall 5-year neurologic aggravation-free survival rates were $79.1{\pm}7.0%$ in the early group and $90.9{\pm}6.1%$ in the delayed group (p=0.113). Conclusion: Outcomes of early operation for infective endocarditis in stroke patients were similar to those of the conventional approach. Early surgical intervention may be preferable for patients at high risk of life-threatening septic embolism.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2008

Purpose: Human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells(hATSCs) can be differentiated into multiple mesenchymal lineages, including bone, cartilage, and muscle. And growth hormone play important roles in the normal growth and development of the CNS. In this study, we explored whether the transplanted hATSCs and growth hormones could improve functional recoveries from rats with contusive spinal cord injury. Methods: We divided 30 female rats, which were subjected to a weight driven implant spinal cord injury, into 3 groups with 10 rats each; Group A as a control group, group B with hATSCs transplantation on injured region, and group C with hATSCs transplantation and GH administration for 7 days. Then, we researched their neurologic functional recoveries before and 2, 4, and 8 weeks after transplantation using Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale. And we checked Y-chromosome positive cells by FISH(Fluorescent in situ hybridization) to identify the survival of transplanted mesenchymal stem cells. Results: After 4 weeks of transplantation, the group B and group C showed significant improvement of neurologic function on BBB locomotor rating scale in comparison with the group A(Group A: $13.1{\pm}0.58$, Group B: $14.6{\pm}0.69$, Group C: $14.9{\pm}0.56$). Moreover, the group C displayed meaningful recovery of neurologic function after 8 weeks in comparison with group B (Group B: $15.7{\pm}0.63$, Group C: $16.5{\pm}1.14$). The group A, the control one, improved for 5 weeks after injury, and had no more recovery. On the other hand, Group B and C showed the improvement of neurologic function continuously for 9 weeks after injury. Conclusion: In this study, we found out that hATSCs transplantation have an effect on neurologic functional recovery of spinal cord injured rat and GH injection seems to bring the synergistic results on this good tendency.