Clinical Characteristics of 17 Cases of Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis / 대한소화기학회지

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG) is a rare disease characterized by prominent eosinophilic infiltration that may involve a variable depth of one or more gastrointestinal organs. We analyzed the largest number of patients with EG among the studies carried out at a single center in Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, and radiologic features, management, and clinical outcome in 17 patients who were diagnosed as EG from January 1994 to Febuary 2008. RESULTS: Median age was 36 (2-67 years). Two of the 17 patients had a history of allergy. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain and diarrhea. Fifteen patients (88.2%) had hypereosinophilia. The ESR was moderately raised in 6 out of 14 patients. Eleven patients (64.7%) had predominant involvement of the mucosa, 1 (5.9%) of muscularis, and 5 (29.4%) of subserosa. EGD revealed non-specific findings such as erythema and edema. Abdominal Computed tomography revealed gastrointestinal wall thickenings of the involved organ, and all of 5 cases of the subserosal type had ascites. Thirteen patients (76.5%) were improved by corticosteroid treatment. Among five patients who had been followed for more than one year (12-84 months), two experienced relapse after discontinuing corticosteroids. CONCLUSIONS: EG should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms even in the absence of peripheral eosinophilia and in non-specific endoscopic findings.

Publication Patterns of Paper Presented at the Annual Fall Congress of the Korean Orthopaedic Association / 대한정형외과학회잡지

Presentation of research work is an important first step toward effective scientific communication of the research results. To determine the current puhlication patterns of the paper presented at the annual fall congress of the Korean Orthopaedic Association, we analysed 357 orally presented ahstracts at the 38th annual fall congress of the Korean Orthopaedic Asssociation which was held in 1994. This search revealed that full-length articles of 156 ahstracts (44%) were puhlished in the Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Asssociation (121 ahstracts, 34%) and the Journals asssociated with the Korean Orthopaedic Asssociation (35 ahstracts, I 0%). The number of published papers was greatest in fracture part, followed by spine part, hip part, etc. It took ahout 13 months mean interval to publish at journal since oral presented date. The puhlication rate 44% was relatively low compared with the reports of various foreign disciplines. So endeavors to increase publication rates of orally presented papers will he needed.

The Distally Based Superficial Sural Artery Flap / 대한정형외과학회잡지

The superficial sural artery flap is supplied by the superficial sural artery that accompanies the sural nerve. The superficial sural artery connects distally with a peroneal artery septocutaneous perforator via a suprafascial network of vessels that permits the flap to be raised on its distal pedicle. We treated 10 patients who showed soft tissue defect of the lower third of the leg, around the ankle and the hindfoot with this flap. The causes of the soft tissue defect were trauma in 6 cases, pressure sore in 2 cases, squamous cell carcinoma in 1 case and osteomyelitis in 1 case. The sites of the soft tissue defect were the lower third of the leg in 5 cases, around the ankle in 2 cases and the hindfoot in 3 cases. The size of the soft tissue defect was from 5x6 cm to 8xl2 cm. All 10 flaps survived. Two flaps showed slight venous congestion which cleared in a few days. The time for flap dissection was 15 minutes in average. The results of our cases show that the distally based superficial sural artery flap is useful for the soft tissue coverage of the lower third of the leg, around the ankle and the hindfoot. The advantages of the flap are that the blood supply is reliable, elevation is easy and quick, the major arteries are not sacrificed and the donor site morbidity is negligible.