• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.557-569
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• 2011

Objectives : Based on the system and control activity for the monitoring system made of components for infection control at dental hospitals and infection rate reporting, and the role of trained infection control staff, this study tried to understand approaches to the effective infection control program by surveying infection control at dental hospitals in Korea. Methods : The survey was conducted from December 14,2010 to January 31,2011 for 121 dental hospitals in Korea. For statistical analysis, PASW Statistic 18 was used. Results : And following conclusions were reached. 1. As for the infection control system at dental hospitals, 54.7% has an infection control committee, 58.7% infection control staff, 78.5% infection control rules, and 39.7% annual infection control plan and record. 2. As for surveillance indexes to report infection rates, 50.4% has the reporting system for staff's exposure to infectious disease and needle pricking. The average number of exposures to infectious disease was $0.28{\pm}2.23$ and that of needle pricking was $1.83{\pm}5.39$. 3. As for infection control indexes, it was reviewed whether infection control rules were implemented according to operation agents, general hospitals were more active in staff infection control, and hospitals annexed to a dental university or special legal entity were more active in microorganism control. As for use of personal protection gear, there was no significant difference among operation agents. More than 71% of operators and their assistants said they did not replace their masks between patients. 4. As for personnel indexes for effective infection control staff, most hospitals designated dental hygienists, which was followed by dental doctors (or doctors). Where their workload was reviewed, the ratio of other work such as treatment was relatively higher than that of infection control (n=71). Conclusions : These results show dental hospitals in Korea have a certain level of infection control system. As infection indexes are managed mainly for staff members, patient monitoring is needed, and trained and effective infection control staff should be designated. This study reviewed surveillance, infection control and personnel indexes. And further studies are needed in the future.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.97-104
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• 2016

Purpose: Facilities for infection prevention according to the characteristics of the patients, caregivers and medical personnel are needed in the patient triage room of the emergency department as a space for the first medical examination and classification of the patients. This study focus on the patient tirage room with the highest frequency of use in the emergency department to prevent the hospital acquired infection of the emergency department. Methods:: This study analyzed the facilities standard needed for the infection prevention through interviews with the medical personnel and analyses on the facilities standard/cases of foreign hospitals and facilities standard at home and abroad Results: And based on this, it attempted to present improvement measures by analyzing the line of circulation and space used by infected patients in a hospital designated in the regional emergency medical center among hospitals whose emergency department overcrowding index is high. Implications: The facilities standard for the infection prevention among the courses for patient classification of the emergency medical centers could be identified and implemented to prevent infection.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.63-71
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the incidence and risk factors for surgical glove perforation during operation. Methods: During the month of december 2008, a total of 1,400 pairs of surgical gloves used in major operations was collected in a tertiary hospital. All gloves were examined immediately after operation using the standardized water-leak method to detect any perforation. Incidence of the glove perforation was counted according to the type of operation, operation time, the number of involved personnel, perforation sites, and the manufacturing companies. Results: Out of 2,800 gloves examined, 312 perforations were detected comprising 11.1% of samples. In terms of the type of operation, the perforation incidence varied from 5% to 20%, and the perforation rates in CS (20%) and NS (18%) (p<.001) were significantly higher than those in other departments. The 1st assistant or scrub nurse got glove perforation more frequently than the 2nd assistant or operator (p<.001). Longer operation time was associated with higher incidence of perforation evidently (p<.001). In terms of the sites, the thumb and index finger were more frequently perforated than other sites (4.1% and 3.4% respectively) without any differences between left and right side. Conclusion: Risk factors for glove perforation including the department of operation, operation time, participating personnel, and location of perforation should be taken into account to improve surgical safety.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.254-263
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• 2013

This study is to develop an evaluation index for infection control and to verify its validity by examining each set of weighted data collected from 121 infection control personnel at dental hospitals who agreed to the preliminary survey and advisory. The study was conducted from 14th December, 2010 to 31st January, 2011, and PASW Statistics 18.0 and AMOS 5.0 had been used for the statistical data analysis. As a result of the study, five evaluation factors with 21 sub-indicators have been identified at structural level, eight evaluation factors with 32 sub-indicators at processing level, and one evaluation fact with five sub-indicators at resulting level, total 14 evaluation factors with 58 sub-indicators throughout all levels. The path analysis added on the result that 'standard precautions ($x_1$)', 'infection control support system ($x_2$)', 'internal and external characteristics ($x_3$)' are exogenous variables that affect on other variables, and 'standard infection control ($y_1$)','Organization equipment management handwashing ($y_2$)', 'environmental infection control ($y_3$), 'personal protective equipment ($y_4$)', 'waste and laundry management ($y_5$)' are endogenous variables that are infulenced by others. The standardized metrics are more needed than anything else when examining on infection control. This study attempts to develop proper dental infection control metrics adequately adjusted for domestic circumstances, and therefore to contribute to effective systematic management and decision-making in infection control.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.48-50
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• 2014

Brucellosis is caused by gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile, facultative, intracellular coccobacilli belonging to the genus Brucella. A 50-year-old man working as an employee was admitted to neurosurgery clinic with severe low back, radicular right leg pain and hypoesthesia in right L4-5 dermatomes for 2 months. Brucella tube agglutination (Wright) test was positive in serum sample of the patient with a titer of 1/640. Brucella melitensis was isolated from blood culture. X-ray and MRI of the lomber spine showed massive collapse of L4 vertebral body. Neural tissue was decompressed and then posterior L3-5 short segment transpedicular screw fixation and stabilization was performed. Brucella melitensis was isolated from microbiologic culture of pathologic specimen. Antibiotic therapy was given as doxycycline 200 mg/day and rifampicin 600 mg/day for 6 months. Brucellosis is a systemic zoonotic infection and still an important public health problem in many geographical parts of the world. Vertebral body collapse caused by brucellosis occurs very rarely but represents a neurosurgical emergency because of its potential for causing rapidly progressive spinal cord compression and permanent paralysis. Neurosurgeons, emergency department personnel as well as infectious disease specialists should always keep a high index of suspicion and include brucellosis in the differential diagnosis of vertebral body collapse.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.298-305
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• 2019

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) causes substantial health burden to the Korean military. This study aims to assess the impact of infectious TB cases on close and casual contacts in the Korean Army settings based on contact investigation data. Methods: Six Army units with infectious TB cases from September 2012 to May 2013 were enrolled in the study. We analyzed the clinical data from close and casual contacts screened using the tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube to identify latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) cases. For the control group, 286 military conscripts with no reported TB exposure were tested by TST only. Results: Of the 667 contacts of index cases, LTBI cases identified were as follows: 21.8% of close contacts of smearpositive cases (71/326), 8.5% of casual contacts of smear-positive cases (26/305), and 2.8% of close contacts of smearnegative cases (1/36). In the control group, 16.8% showed positivity in TST. In a multivariate analysis, having stayed in the same room or next room with TB patients was identified as a risk factor of LTBI. Conclusion: Using the data from TB contact investigations in the Korean Army units, we found an overall LTBI rate of 14.7% among the contacts screened. This study demonstrates that contacts living in the same building, especially the same room or next room, with TB patients are at a high risk of acquiring LTBI, serving as additional evidence for defining close and casual contacts of a TB patient with regard to Army barrack settings.