• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.111-131
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• 2002

Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) received a great deal of attention from the Orient and West as a tonic agent, health food and/or alternative herbal therapeutic agent. However, controversy with respect to scientific evidence on pharmacological effects especially, evaluation of clinical efficacy and the methodological approach still remains to be solved. Author reviewed those articles published since 1980 when pharmacodynamic studies on ginseng have intensively started. Special concern was paid on metabolic disorders including diabetes mellitus, circulatory disorders, malignant tumor, sexual dysfunction, and physical and mental performance to give clear information to those who are interested in pharmacological study of ginseng and to promote its clinical use. With respect to chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, malignant disorders, and sexual disorders, it seems that ginseng plays preventive and restorative role rather than therapeutics. Particularly, ginseng plays a significant role in ameliorating subjective symptoms and preventing quality of life from deteriorating by long term exposure of chemical therapeutic agents. Also it seems that the potency of ginseng is mild, therefore it could be more effective when used concomitantly with conventional therapy. Clinical studies on the tonic effect of ginseng on work performance demonstrated that physical and mental dysfunction induced by various stresses are improved by increasing adaptability of physical condition. However, the results obtained from clinical studies cannot be mentioned in the indication, which are variable upon the scientist who performed those studies. In this respect, standardized ginseng product and providing planning of the systematic clinical research in double-blind randomized controlled trials are needed to assess the real efficacy for proposing ginseng indication. Pharmacological mode of action of ginseng has not yet been fully elucidated. Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic researches reveal that the role of ginseng not seem to be confined to a given single organ. It has been known that ginseng plays a beneficial role in such general organs as central nervous, endocrine, metabolic, immune systems, which means ginseng improves general physical and mental conditons. Such multivalent effect of ginseng can be attributed to the main active component of ginseng,ginsenosides or non-saponin compounds which are also recently suggested to be another active ingredients. As is generally the similar case with other herbal medicines, effects of ginseng cannot be attributed as a given single compound or group of components. Diversified ingredients play synergistic or antagonistic role each other and act in harmonized manner. A few cases of adverse effect in clinical uses are reported, however, it is not observed when standardized ginseng products are used and recommended dose was administered. Unfavorable interaction with other drugs has also been suggested, which the information on the products and administered dosage are not available. However, efficacy, safety, interaction or contraindication with other medicines has to be more intensively investigated in order to promote clinical application of ginseng. For example, daily recommended doses per day are not agreement as 1-2g in the West and 3-6 g in the Orient. Duration of administration also seems variable according to the purpose. Two to three months are generally recommended to feel the benefit but time- and dose-dependent effects of ginseng still need to be solved from now on. Furthermore, the effect of ginsenosides transformed by the intestinal microflora, and differential effect associated with ginsenosides content and its composition also should be clinically evaluated in the future. In conclusion, the more wide-spread use of ginseng as a herbal medicine or nutraceutical supplement warrants the more rigorous investigations to assess its effacy and safety. In addition, a careful quality control of ginseng preparations should be done to ensure an acceptable standardization of commercial products.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.126-132
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• 1999

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to investigate 1) the incidence of insomnia, 2) the clinical characteristics of the insomniacs, 3) the correlation of severity of insomnia with somatic complaints and psychological distresses, and 4) the beliefs and attitudes about sleep in patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis. Methods: The author evaluated 153 patients, receiving hemodialysis therapy at the four outpatients hemodialysis units in Pusan, Korea. The patients had completed a self-administered questionnaire package, which consisted of basic demographic findings, questions characterizing insomnia, Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), Spielburger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI), and visual analogue scales measuring quantitatively the severity of the self-perceived psychological and somatic symptoms. And several laboratory data were collected. Diagnosis of insomnia was made in the base of insomnia criteria of DSM-IV and international classification of sleep disorders. Subjects were dichotomized into those who reported any characteristics of insomnia or those who had no insomnia during the preceding two weeks. Results: Insomnia was found in 100(65.4%) of 153 patients. No statistical differences were found between the patients with and without insomnia in terms of age, gender, education, marital status, mean duration of hemodialysis and all considered laboratory findings except serum albumin. The patients with insomnia had significantly higher BDI score and predialysis systolic blood pressure, and lower serum albumin as compared to non-insomnia group. Significant differences were found between two groups in terms of self-perceived distress such as sadness, anxiety, worry, pruritus, and dysfunction of daily life. The data showed statistically significant correlation between insomnia severity and some variables such as physical dysfunction, pruritus, bone pain, sadness, anxiety, worry, dysfunction of daily life and excessive daytime sleepiness. The patients with insomnia had significantly several dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep than those without insomnia. Conclusion: These results indicate that insomnia is very common in hemodialysis patients and likely contribute to the impaired quality of life experienced by many these patients. The author suggests that physical and psychological distresses would be reduced and the quality of life could be improved if their sleep disturbances are properly ameliorated in patients on hemodialysis.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2010

Obese people experience dissatisfaction of body, depression, anxiety, and emotional disturbance by social prejudice and discrimination, further they represent decline of health-related quality of life. Exercise therapy is recommended as one of the positive treatments to improve the emotional pain of obese people. This study is to provide guideline of exercise prescription for obese people by investigating the effects of qigong exercise on psychological factors such as health-related quality of life (SF-36), self-efficiency, depression, anxiety, and fatigue in obese people. The subjects of this study were 50~60s adults participated in Golden-Wellbeing program at S university in G gu of S city and were devided into exercise (N=17) and control (N=16) group. Qigong exercise was performed twice per week for 12 weeks and SF-36, self-efficiency, depression, anxiety, and fatigue were measured before and after 12 weeks of exercise. In the 8 items of SF-36 before and after 12 weeks of qi-gong exercise, there was no significance in role limitation-emotional (F=0.187, p=0.668), mental health (F=2.043, p=0.163) between groups, but there was significance in physical functioning (F=15.151, p<0.001), role limitation-physical (F=18.278, p<0.001), social functioning (F=4.957, p=0.033), vitality (F=11.485, p=0.002), bodily pain (F=6.623, p=0.015), and general health (F=4.498, p=0.042) between groups. Also, anxiety (F=0.631, p=0.433) was not significant, whereas self-efficiency (F=6.124, p=0.019), depression (F=5.109, p=0.031), fatigue (F=7.998, p=0.008) was significant between groups. Even though qigong is slow motion and low intensity of exercise, it was found that qi-gong has exercise effect which induces mental and psychological improvement through this study.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2023

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent validity of the self- and proxy-report versions of the KIDSCREEN-10 quality of life questionnaire. Methods : A total of nine children and nine parents were selected to represent a cohort registered for a school-based wellness program. Two versions of the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire (self- and proxy reports) were administered to the children and their parents. The Rasch rating scale model was applied to determine the dimensionality and item difficulty of the two versions of the questionnaire. Moreover, the item-person matching map and Spearman's rho were compared to confirm the concurrent validity of the two versions. Results : All items, except four items (i.e., autonomy, home life, concentration/learning, and peers/social support), fit the Rasch rating scale model of the children's self-report version of the questionnaire. With regard to the parent's proxy-report version, two items misfit the model. While the items of the self- and proxy-report versions showed similar item difficulties, the parents had a tendency to be more severe in their ratings than the children. The correlation between the two versions was relatively low (Spearman's rho = .533, p > .05). The scatterplots between the two versions showed differences in the item difficulties of the physical and psychological well-being and self-perception items. Conclusion : These findings suggest that the three identified items should be taken into consideration when measuring children's health-related quality of life using the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2000

The following results have been obtaind after examing 72patients with facial paralysis who were hospitalzed and treated through the time period of December 1st, 1996 to November 30th, 1999 at the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion of Seoul Oriental Medicine, Kyungwon University. During the examination, those 72 patients were divided into two groups, and One group was treated by oriental-western treatment, the other group was treated by oriental treatment. Oriental treatments were acupuncture and moxibustion, herb medicine, physical treatment and hygienic treatment. The one of main western treatments is steroid therapy. The results were obtained as follows : 1. In regard to signs at the first medical examination, lacrimation was showed highest number and facial paralysis, dysgeusia, hyperacusis were showed in numerical order. 2. In regard to prescription of oriental herb medicine, Kamissangbotang(加味雙補湯) was prescribed in greatest numbers and Boyangwhanotang(補陽還五湯), Kamiboiktang(加味補益湯), Ligigepungtang(理氣祛風湯) were prescribed in numerical order. 3. In regard to treatment number, 10~19 times for treatment was showed highest number and 1~9 times, 20~29 times, 40~49 times were showed in numerical order . 4. In regard to mean treatment times about injury region and main sign, the effect of oriental-western treatment was showed as follows: lacrimal gland disorder, hyperacusis, dysgeusia, facial paralysis were treated for 15.1, 27, 13.2 and 21.4 times, repectively. The effect of oriental treatment was showed as follows: lacrimal gland disorder, hyperacusis, dysgeusia, facial paralysis were treated for 34.8, 22.1, 33.8 and 16.3 times, respectively. 5. In regard ta the effect of treatment about injury region and main sign, oriental-western treatment was showed as follows: cases of lacrimal gland disorder were showed 1 of excellent case, 1 of fair case, 5 of good cases. In hyperacusis patients, there was showed 1 of fair case. In dysgeusia patients, there was showed 1 of excellent case, 3 of fair cases, 1 of good case. In facial paralysis, there were showed 5 of fair cases. Oriental treatment was showed as follows: In lacrimal gland disorder, the excellent were 4 cases, the fair were 10 cases, the good were 3 cases and the poor were 4 cases, In hyperacusis, the fair were 5 cases, the poor 2 cases. In dysgeusia, the excellent were 4 cases, the fair were 1 case, the good were 1 case and the poor was 1 case, In facial paralysis, the excellent were 9 cases, the fair were 4 cases, the good 3 cases and the poor were 3 cases. 6. The effect of total treatment was as follows: 30 cases were showed fair effect, 19 cases were showed excellent effect, 13 cases were showed good effect and 10 cases were showed poor effect. 7. In regard to attack factor, overlabour was showed highest number and wind-cold, mental stress, trauma, ear disease, common cold, dental diseae, reason unknwon were showed in numerical order. 8. In regard to premonitory symptoms, non significant symptoms were in 38 cases, the pain of peri-stylomastoid region were in 38 cases and headache, dysaesthesia of periorbit, dysgeusia, stomatitis, eyelid tic were showed in numerical order. 9. In regard to sex, male were 33 cases and female were 39 cases. The distribution of age was disclosed that thirty, forty, fifty, seventy, sixty, twenty and below twenty years were revealed in turn. Sex and paralytic side were showed as follows: male-left were 15 cases, male-right were 18 cases, female-left were 19 cases and female-right were 19 cases. In regard to attack frequence in month, March was showed highest number and January, April, May, August, October, etc were showed in numerical order. In regard to attack frequence in season, spring was showed highest number and winter, summer, fall were showed in numerical order, but attack frequence between four seasons wasn't showed significant difference.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2013

Purpose: I-131 is a radioisotope widely used for thyroid gland treatments. The physical half life is 8.01 and characterized by emitting beta and gamma rays which is used in clinical practice for the purpose of acquiring treatment and images. In order to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery in high-risk thyroid cancer patients, the remaining thyroid tissue is either removed or the I-131 is used for treatment during relapse. In cases of using a high dosage of radioactive iodine requiring hospitalization, the patient is administered dosage in the hospital isolation ward over a certain period of time preventing I-131 exposure to others. By checking the radiation amount emitted from patients before discharge, the patients are discharged after checking whether they meet the legal standards (50 uSv/h). After patients are discharged from the hospital, the contamination level is checked in many parts of the ward before the next patients are hospitalized and when necessary, decontamination operations are performed. It is expected that there is exposure to radiation when measuring the ward contamination level and dose check emitted from patients at the time of discharge whereby the radiation exposure by health workers that come from the patients in this process is the main factor. This study analyzed the correlation between discharge dose of patients and ward contamination level through a variety of factors such as renal functions, gender, age, dosage, etc.). Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 151 patients who received high-dosage radioactive iodine treatment at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital during the period between 8/1/2011~5/31/2012 (Male: Female: 31:120, $47.5{\pm}11.9$, average dosage of $138{\pm}22.4$ mCi). As various factors expected to influence the patient discharge dose & ward contamination such as the beds, floors, bathroom floors, and washbasins, the patient renal function (GFR), age, gender, dosage, and the correlation between the expected Tg & Tg-Tb expected to reflect the remaining tissue in patients were analyzed. Results: In terms of the discharge dose and GFR, a low correlation was shown in the patient discharge dose as the GFR was higher (p < 0.0001). When comparing the group with a dosage of over 150mCi and the group with a lower dosage, the lower dosage group showed a significantly lower discharge dose ($24{\pm}10.4uSv/h$ vs $28.7{\pm}11.8uSv/h$, p<0.05). Age, gender, Tg, Tg-Tb did not show a significant relationship with discharge dose (p> 0.05). The contamination level in each spot of the treatment ward showed no significant relationship with GFR, Tg, Tg-Tb, age, gender, and dosage (p>0.05 ). Conclusion: This study says that discharge of the dose in the patient's body is low in GFR higher and Dosage 150mCi under lower. There was no case of contamination of the treatment ward, depending on the dose and renal association. This suggests that patients' lifestyles or be affected by a variety of other factors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5271-5283
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to provide fundamental materials for improving school health promotion programs by investigating the relationships between the change in obesity rate and risk factors of metabolic syndrome among middle school students in Ulsan. We analyzed the routine health check-up data in 58,298 2nd-year middle school students in Ulsan, which conducted by the Planned Population Federation of Korea from 2007 to 2011. The overall and girls obesity rates gradually decreased throughout the first four years but increased again in 2011. The boys obesity rates were highest in 2008 and lowest in 2010. Throughout the research years, the incidence rates of over-weight and obesity were statistically significantly higher in boys compared to girls(P<0.05). Prevalence rates of the metabolic syndrome, assessed with the modified Cook criteria except high blood pressure, were 0.58%, 0%, 0.01%, 0.31% and 4.53%, respectively in total, low, normal, over-weight, and obese groups. It indicates that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome is increasing and directly related to the obesity rate among adolescents. Hypertriglyceridemia was the most common component (36.58%) of the metabolic syndrome among the middles school students followed by low HDL cholesterol (6.47%), abdominal obesity (3.72%), and high blood sugar (0.47%). Prevalence of the various components of the metabolic syndrome were significantly higher in the obese group compared to other groups. In this study we observed the decrease in obesity rates between 2007 and 2010, and developing obesity prevention programs is essential in order to maintain the trend. Additional study should be necessary to find the cause of increase of obesity rate in 2011 and so to create more effective school health promotion programmes.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.77-99
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• 1992

The study was carried out at W. hospital, an affiliated hospital of Y university, involved a total of 163 patients who were discharged from the hospital between May 1990 und March 199J. Data collection was twice, just prior to discharge and a minimum of three months post discharge. Thirty patients who lived within a hour travel time of the hospital received home care during the three months post discharge. Nursing diagnoses and nursing interventions For these patients were analyzed in this study. The results of the study are summarized as follows : 1. Discharge needs for the subjects of the study were analyzed using Gordon's eleven Functional categories and it was found that 48.3% of the total sample had identified nursing needs. Of these, the needs most frequently identified were in the categories of sexuality, 79.3 %, health perception, 68.2 % self concept, 62.5 %, and sleep and rest 62.5 %. Looking ut j he nursing diagnosis that were made for the 30 patients receiving home care, the following diagnoses were the most frequently given; alteration in sexual pattern 79.3%, alterations in health maintenance, 72.6%, alteration in comfort, 68.0%, depression, 64.0%, noncompliance with diet therapy, 6.3.7%, alteration in self concept, 55.6%, and alteration in sleep pattern, 53%. 2. In looking at the effects of home nursing care as demonstrated by changes in the functional categories over the three month period, it was Found that of the 11 functional categories, the need level for health perception, nutrition, activity and self concept decreased slightly over the three month period. On the average sleep patterns improved, but restfulness was slightly less and bowel elimination patterns improved but satisfaction with urinary elimination was slightly less. On the other hand, role enactment, sexuality, stress management and spirituality decreased slightly. The only results that were statistically significant at the 0.05 level were improvement. in digestion and decrease in pain. No statistically significant changes were found in ability related to ADL, the total ADL Score at discharge was $19.78{\pm}8.234, and after 3 months $19.01{\pm}8.12$. Considering that a majority of the patients were over 60 years of age and that many had brain or spinal cord injuries, the fact that their ADL ability did nor deteriorate after discharge can be interpreted as related to a positive impact by the home health care nurses. Similarly there was a slight be not statistically significant decrease in the quality of life scores between the two lest times(l47.83 at discharge and 113.02 at the three month period). Again, when the chronic nature of thee problems facing these patients is considered this maintenance of quality of life can be interpreted as a positive impact by the home health care nurses. 3. One of the home care nursing activities was diagnosis. For this activity it was found that for nine functional health categories(sexuality and spirituality excepted) there were 20 nursing diagnoses. The most frequent were noncompliance, alteration in skin integrity both actual and potential, and impaired physical mobility in that order. 4. Delivery of home health care by the home health nurses included the following nursing activities; assessment, patient education, demonstration of care activities, counselling, direct care to the patient and referrals. Direct care included changing dressings, bladder irrigations, changing Foley catheters, measurement of residual urine, perineal care, position change, back care, oral hygiene, exercise and massage of motion exercises, cleansing enemas, tracheostomy suctioning and tracheostomy care, care of dentures, applications of heat and other similar nursing activities. In conclusion almost 50% of (he sample indicated a need for continued nursing care at the time of discharge and for the patients in the sample who received home care there was a slight decrease in nursing needs but while the patients had chronic and debilitation problems there was ill decrease in ADL abilities or in quality of life. Further study needs Lo be done La increase the reliability and validity of the tool that was used to measure home health care needs. It is also recommended that study by done using a randomized sampling with a control group to compare patients who receive home care with those who do not.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1056-1062
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• 2016

Lung cancer is currently the most common malignant disease and the leading cause of mortality in the world and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 75-80% of lung cancer cases. miR-155 gene was found to be over expressed in several solid tumors, such as thyroid carcinoma, breast cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and lung cancer. The aims of this study were to define the expression of miR-155 in lung cancer and its associated clinic-pathologic characteristics. Total RNA was purified from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded NSCLC tissues and benign lung tissues. Expression of miR-155 in human lung cancer tissues were evaluated as mean fold changes of miR-155 in cancer tissues compared to benign lung tissues by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (real-time qRT-PCR) and associations of miR-155 expression with clinic-pathologic findings of cancer. Compared with the benign control group, miR-155 expression was significantly overexpressed in NSCLCs (p=<0.001). miR-155 was more overexpressed in squamous cell carcinoma than in adenocarcinoma. Poorly differentiated tumors showed significantly overexpression of miR-155 than well-differentiated tumors (p=<0.001). Overexpression of miR-155 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (p=<0.05). In survival analysis for all NSCLC patients, high miR-155 expression was significantly correlated with worse overall survival (p=<0.05). These results suggested that miR-155 might play an important role in lung cancer progression and metastasis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.610-618
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• 2008

Background: There are various treatment modalities for atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease at the lower limbs, for example, conservative physical therapy, medication, operation etc. Yet it has been established that an arterial bypass operation is the most effective treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of arterial bypass operation within our experience and to determine the indicators of treatment. Material and Method: Ninety six patients received arterial bypass operation for atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease from June 2002 to April 2006. We evaluated the feasibility of arterial bypass operation based on the improvement of symptoms and the ankle-brachial index (ABI) and the surgical outcomes, as based on the complications, the amputation rates and the patency rates. We also assessed the possible risk factors such as gender, age, a smoking history, co-morbidities, the anastomotic sites, the graft size and the graft type. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the patients. The total mean follow-up period was $29.4{\pm}13.1$ months. Result: The mean age was $65.95{\pm}9.61$ and there were 88 male patients. The most common clinical manifestation was ischemic resting pain in the lower extremities. The underlying combined diseases were hypertension (61%), diabetes (43%), cardiac problems (35%) and smoking (91.7%). The most frequent site of arterial obstruction was the superficial femoral artery (44 cases, 40%). A femoropopliteal artery bypass operation with a Polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) synthetic graft was done in 44 cases (40%) and the great saphenous vein graft was used in 11 cases. The postoperative ABI increased significantly from $0.30{\pm}0.11$ preoperatively to $0.63{\pm}0.11$ (p<0.001) postoperatively. In 8 cases, amputations above the ankle level were necessary. The graft patency rates were 86.4% and 68.0% after 1 and 3 years, respectively. There were 29 cases (30.21%) of patency failure; the male gender, smokers and hypertension were significantly more frequent in the failure group. Of these, hypertension was the most powerful risk factor (p=0.042). Conclusion: The arterial bypass operation is an effective treatment modality for controlling the symptoms such as pain and claudication, and for preventing major amputations for the patients with atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease. This study suggests quitting smoking, strict blood pressure control, selection of an appropriate graft, regular outpatient follow up and proper medication would offer higher patency rates and more favorable outcomes.