• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2009

Purpose: Early diagnosis and management of therapeutic interventions are very important in chest trauma. Conventional chest X-rays (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) are the diagnostic tools that can be quickly implemented for chest trauma patients in the emergency department. In this study, the usefulness of the CT as a diagnostic measurement was examined by analyzing the ability to detect thoracic injuries in trauma patients who had visited the emergency department and undergone CXR and CT. Methods: This study involved 84 patients who had visited the emergency department due to chest trauma and who had undergone both CXR and CT during their diagnostic process. The patients' characteristics and early vital signs were examined through a retrospective analysis of their medical records, and the CXR and the CT saved in the Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) were examined by a radiologist and an emergency physician to verify whether or not a lesion was present. Results: Pneumothoraxes, hemothoraxes, pneumomediastina, pulmonary lacerations, rib fractures, vertebral fractures, chest wall contusions, and subcutaneous emphysema were prevalently found in a statistically meaningful way (p<0.05) on the CT. Even though their statistical significance couldn' be verified, other disorders, including aortic injury, were more prevalently found by CT than by CXR. Conclusion: CT implemented for chest trauma patients visiting the emergency department allowed disorders that couldn' be found on CXR to be verified, which helped us to could accurately evaluate patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.183-187
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• 2007

A glomus tumor is composed of modified smooth muscle cells that are similar to those of the glomus body. Its occurrence in the trachea is quite rare. To our knowledge, only 20 cases of glomus tumor of the trachea have been reported worldwide and there has been only 1 case in Korea. We report one case of a 58-year-old man with dyspnea who had a glomus tumor in the upper trachea with a review of literatures. The chest CT scan and bronchoscopy demonstrated a 2.5 cm sized lobulated tumor at the posterior wall of the upper trachea. It had an elongated shape with a broad base and with a highly vascularity. A simple resection of 3 levels of the trachearing was with a tumor and end-to-end anastomosis performed. Microscopic and immunohistochemical staining of the tumor revealed the characteristics of a glomus tumor.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2016

Background: Pectus excavatum (PE) and pectus carinatum (PC) are the most common chest wall deformities. In this study, we aimed to characterize how patients obtained information about these deformities, as well as patients' family history, associated medical problems, and postoperative satisfaction after the Nuss and Abramson procedures. Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective study included patients who were operated by a single surgeon between 2006 and 2013. Follow-up calls were made after approval of our institution's ethics committee. We reached 207 of the 336 PE patients (61.6%) and 73 of the 96 PC patients (76%). Results: The majority of the patients were male (85% of the PE patients and 91.8% of the PC patients). The age of diagnosis of PE was $14.52{\pm}0.51years$ and the age at the time of operation was $17.89{\pm}0.42years$; for PC patients, the corresponding ages were $15.23{\pm}0.55years$ and $16.77{\pm}0.55years$, respectively. A total of 70% of the PE patients and 63.8% of the PC patients obtained information about pectus deformities through the Internet. In 27.1% of the PE patients with an associated anomaly, 57.1% (n=13) had scoliosis, while 41.1% of the PC patients with an associated anomaly had kyphosis (n=5). Postoperative satisfaction, as evaluated on a scale from 0 to 10, was $8.17{\pm}0.15$ for PE patients and $8.37{\pm}0.26$ for PC patients. The postoperative pain duration was $51.93{\pm}5.18days$ for PE patients and $38.5{\pm}6.88days$ for PC patients. Conclusion: In this study, we found that most patients with pectus deformities were male. The Internet was an important resource for patients to learn about their deformities. Family history and associated anomalies were identified as important aspects for consideration in the clinical setting. The patients reported high levels of postoperative satisfaction, and pain management was found to be one of the most important elements of postoperative care.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.392-396
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• 2002

Background: Video-thoracoscopy is known to be an useful method to provide accurate pre-resectional staging in patients with lung cancer in addition to the conventional radiologic studies and mediastinoscopy, for the pleural cavity is inspected directly and biopsy specimens call be obtained. This study is undertaken to evaluate how video-thoracoscopy can be used in deciding pre-resectional stage Material and Method: Video-thoracoscopy was performed in patients with lung cancer who were scheduled for surgical resection based on the radiologic staging and mediastinoscopic biopsy. 37 patients were included in this study. Pre-thoracoscopically 18 cases were in TNM stage 1, 7 in stage 2, and 12 in stage 3. Result: In 15 of 37 cases, video-thoracoscopy could not be performed effectively due to heavy adhesions in the pleural cavity, diaphragmatic and chest wall invasion of tumor and bulky tumor mass es. Mediastinal lymph nodes were positive postresectionally in 6 of these 15 cases. In 22 cases, video-thoracoscopy was performed as usual. Positive mediastinal lymph nodes were identified in 2 cases and exploratory thoracotomy was prevented. Surgical resection were carried out in remaining 20 cases and 5 cases among them had positive mediastinal lymph nodes. Conclusion: We believe that it is difficult to perform pre-thoracotorny video-thoracoscopy for all lung cancer patients for there were many cases that thoracoscory could not be undertaken doe to heavy adhesions in the pleural cavity, tumor involvement of the chest wall and/or diaphragm and bulky tumor mass. However we think it is helpful in preventing unnecessary exploratory thoracotomy for some patients with lung cancer whom pre-thoracotomy video-thoracoscopy was carried out.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.170-174
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• 2013

Purpose: A flail chest is one of most challenging problems for trauma surgeons. It is usually accompanied by significant underlying pulmonary parenchymal injuries and mayled to a life-threatening thoracic injury. In this study, we evaluated the treatment result for a flail chest to determine the effect of trauma localization on morbidity and mortality. Methods: Between 2004 and 2011, 46 patients(29 males/17 females) were treated for a flail chest. The patients were divided into two group based on the location of the trauma in the chest wall; Group I contained patients with an anterior flail chest due to a bilateral costochondral separation (n=27) and Group II contained patients with a single-side posterolateral flail chest due to a segmental rib fracture (n=19). The location of the trauma in the chest wall, other injuries, mechanical ventilation support, prognosis and ISS (injury severity score) were retrospectively examined in the two groups. Results: Mechanical ventilation support was given in 38 patients(82.6%), and 7 of these 38 patients required a subsequent tracheostomy. The mean ISS for all 46 patients was $19.08{\pm}10.57$. Between the two groups, there was a significant difference in mean ventilator time (p<0.048), but no significant difference in either trauma-related morbidity (p=0.369) or mortality (p=0.189). Conclusion: An anterior flail chest frequently affects the two underlying lung parenchyma and can cause a bilateral lung contusion, a hemopneumothorax and lung hemorrhage. Thus, it needs longer ventilator care than a lateral flail chest does and is more frequently associated with pulmonary complications with poor outcome than a lateral flail chest is. In a severe trauma patient with a flail chest, especially an anterior flail chest, we must pay more attention to the pulmonary care strategy and the bronchial toilet.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.614-620
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• 1996

The method of treatment in lung cancer patients with invasion to parietal pleura, diaphragm, peri- cardium or vertebra is controversial, and resection of these invasion together with pneumonectomy is called "complex pneumonectomy" From March 1990 to February 1994 we performed 18 cases of "complex pneumonectomy". Seven patients had resection of chest wall, 10 patients had pericardial re- section, and one patient had resection of diaphragm Right pneumonectomy was done in 8 cases and left pneumonectomy was done in 10 cases. The age of patients were from 40 to 70 years(mean 58 years) with male to female ratio of 17 to 1. The chief complaints of the patients on admission were cough (13), dyspnea on exertion (11), chest pain (10), weight loss (9), general fatigue (9), and sputum production (4 . Postoperative pathology were 13 squamous cell carcinoma, 3 adenocarcinoma, and one case each of adenosquamous carcinoma and small cell carcinoma. The postoperative pathologic stages were 2 T3NO MO, 4 TIWIMO, 6 T3N2MO, 5 T4N2MO, and 1 TIWIMO. There was one operative mortality(5.5%). Excluding one follow up loss, 14 patients expired during the follow-up and the mean survival was 9.07 $\pm$ 4.82 months. One patient with stage TINOMO who had chest wall resection is alive at 35 months follow-up and a patient with T3N2MO who had diaphragm resection is alive at 36 months follow-up. Therefore, selection of patients for "complex pneumonec- tomy" is very important, and a long term survival is possible.ong term survival is possible.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 1972

Studies of blood gas and lung histopathology were done in 10 dogs after intrapericardlal aorto-right pulmonary arterial anastomosis with proximal ligation of the right pulmonary antery. Among the 5 expired during or after operation, in 3 cases, the causes of the death were due to surgical bleeding and, in 2 cases, acute cardiopulmonary insufficiency because of large anastomosis stoma measured respectively 7mm and 10mm. In the 5 of survivals, one was sacrificed because of empyema at postoperative 7 days and 2 were at postoperative one month and remained 2 at postoperative 3 month respectively. The following observations were made. 1.In every survival, continuous machinary murmur was auscultated and the angiograms of all long term survivals showed the good patency of the anastomosis stoma. 2.After the ligation of the right pulmonary artery, the values of $PO_2$ and $PCO_2$ in arterial and venous blood were generally decreased comparing with the preoperative values. The mean value of $P_aO_2$ noted $83.30{pm}11.875$[p<0.01]. After the shunts operation with ligation of the right pulmonary artery, the immediate values of PH, $PO_2$ and $PCO_2$showed no significant changes comparing with that of right pulmonary artery ligation only. In the cases of survivals more than one month, the values of $PO_2$ and $PCO_2$ in the arterial and venous blood were generally higher than that of ligation of the right pulmonary artery only. The $P_aO_2$ value noted $103.750{pm}7.395$[p<0.01]. The mean values of $P_aO_2$, $PCO_2$ and PH in the arterial and venous blood almost returned to that of preoperative studies. 3.In the specimens of lung from the cadavors expired due to acute cardiopulmonary insufficiency after the operation, there were massive congestion, hemorrhage in the alveolar spaces and bronchioles. In specimens obtained at postoperative one month, there were dilatation of alveolar spaces with partial rupture, slight congestion, and alveolar wall thickening in the lung parenchyme, but there was no significant changes in pulmonary vasculature except dilation of pulmonary capillaries. In the specimens obtained at postoperative three months, the alveolar walls were more thickened in the lung parenchyme than the finding of the specimens obtained at postoperative one month. In the wall of pulmonary capillaries, there was only slight thickening with connective tissue proliferatlon.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.48-59
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• 2024

Purpose: Research on rib fracture management has exponentially increased. Predicting fracture patterns based on the mechanism of injury (MOI) and other possible correlations may improve resource allocation and injury prevention strategies. The Chest Injury International Database (CIID) is the largest prospective repository of the operative and nonoperative management of patients with severe chest wall trauma. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the MOI is associated with the resulting rib fracture patterns. We hypothesized that specific MOIs would be associated with distinct rib fracture patterns. Methods: The CIID was queried to analyze fracture patterns based on the MOI. Patients were stratified by MOI: falls, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), motorcycle collisions (MCCs), automobile-pedestrian collisions, and bicycle collisions. Fracture locations, associated injuries, and patient-specific variables were recorded. Heat maps were created to display the fracture incidence by rib location. Results: The study cohort consisted of 1,121 patients with a median RibScore of 2 (range, 0-3) and 9,353 fractures. The average age was 57±20 years, and 64% of patients were male. By MOI, the number of patients and fractures were as follows: falls (474 patients, 3,360 fractures), MVCs (353 patients, 3,268 fractures), MCCs (165 patients, 1,505 fractures), automobile-pedestrian collisions (70 patients, 713 fractures), and bicycle collisions (59 patients, 507 fractures). The most commonly injured rib was the sixth rib, and the most common fracture location was lateral. Statistically significant differences in the location and patterns of fractures were identified comparing each MOI, except for MCCs versus bicycle collisions. Conclusions: Different mechanisms of injury result in distinct rib fracture patterns. These different patterns should be considered in the workup and management of patients with thoracic injuries. Given these significant differences, future studies should account for both fracture location and the MOI to better define what populations benefit from surgical versus nonoperative management.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.344-347
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• 2011

Intrachondral articulations are the synovial joints that occur within costal cartilage in artiodactyls. The anatomical structure of Korean water deer differs from that of other deer. However, there have been no reports on the occurrence and shape of intrachondral articulations in the deer. To provide information on these articulations, we examined the occurrence and shape of intrachondral articulations in the Korean water deer by gross findings, radiography, computed tomography (CT), and histological observation. These joints often occur in the second to the tenth ribs. Morphologically, they are spheroidal joints, especially from the third to the eighth ribs, and their configuration is discernable in gross findings, radiography, CT, and histological sections. These basic results would be helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the lateral thoracic wall of the Korean water deer.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.195-204
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• 1977

Dynamic lung compliance was measured in healthy ten young[mean age, 26 years] male and five young[mean age, 25 years] female. Lung volume was integrated of the rate of flow signal which was obtained by using pneumotachograph and differential pressure transducer[PM 5, Statham]. Intrapleural pressure was measured as that of intraesophagel pressure. Esophageal ballon, 15. 5cm in length, 4ml of luminal capacity and made of thin latex, was connected to the polyethylene tube that had 12-14 side holes and was of 1.5mm of ID. Transpulmonary pressure was traced by means of differential pressure transducer[PM 131, Statham] to which connected the esophageal balloon catheter and connection tube from mouth piece. Lung volume and transpulmonary pressure were photographed by cathode ray oscilloscope camera while the subjects were breathing spontaneously. Dynamic lung compliance loop was displayed on single trace monitor and subtraction was performed for the quasi-static hysteresis. Dynamic lung compliance was measured, 1. by plotting the pressure-volume relationship 2. from the subtracted pressure-volume loop. Results were as follows. 1. Dynamic lung compliances measured by plotting of healthy young male and female were $0.202{\pm}0.06$ and $0.190{\pm}0.023L/cm$ $H_2O$ respectively. 2. When measured from subtraction loop, dynamic lung compliance for male and female were $0.327{\pm}0.107$, and $0.27{\pm}0.06L/cm$ $H_2O$ respectively. 3. Dynamic chest wall and total respiratory system compliance were also measured. 4. Dynamic lung compliance by plotting appeared to be essentially same when compared to that of static compliance reported previously from our laboratory, however, that obtained from subtraction loop revealed higher values than the compliances obtained by plotting and that of static compliance.