Trend (in 2005) of Repair of Inguinal Hernia in Children in Korea : A National Survey by the Korean Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 2005

Inguinal hernia is the most common disease treated by the pediatric surgeon. There are several controversial aspects of management 1)the optimal timing of surgical repair, especially for preterm babies, 2)contralateral groin exploration during repair of a clinically unilateral hernia, 3)use of laparoscope in contralateral groin exploration, 4)timing of surgical repair of cord hydrocele, 5)perioperative pain control, 6)perioperative management of anemia. In this survey, we attempted to determine the approach of members of KAPS to these aspects of hernia treatment. A questionnaire by e-mail or FAX was sent to all members. The content of the questionnaire were adapted from the "American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Surgery hernia survey revisited (J Pediatr Surg 40, 1009-1014, 2005)". For full-term male baby, most surgeons (85.7 %) perform an elective operation as soon as diagnosis was made. For reducible hernia found in ex-preterm infants already discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), 76.2 % of surgeons performed an elective repair under general anesthesia (85.8 %). 42.9 % of the surgeons performed the repair just before discharge. For same-day surgery for the ex-premature baby, the opinion was evenly divided. For an inguinal hernia with a contralateral undescended testis in a preterm baby, 61.9 % of surgeons choose to 'wait and see' until 12 month of age. The most important consideration in deciding the timing of surgery of inguinal hernia in preterm baby was the existence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (82.4 %), episode of apnea/bradycardia on home monitoring (70.6 %). Most surgeons do not explore the contralateral groin during unilateral hernia repair. Laparoscope has not been tried. Most surgeons do not give perioperative analgesics or blood transfusion.

A Successful Slide Cricotracheoplasty in Congenital Cricotracheal Stenosis

Slide tracheoplasty, as a treatment for congenital tracheal stenosis, has been recently reported to have good results and quite a number of advantages as compared with conventional tracheoplasties. The aim of this study is to report a new surgical technique modified from the slide tracheoplasty, "the slide cricotracheoplasty" for the congenital cricotracheal stenosis. A girl was born by Cesarean section and the diagnosis of esophageal atresia (Gross type C) and cricotracheal stenosis (30% of total length of trachea) was established. Esophageal atresia was successfully corrected at the 8th day of life. At the 31st day of life, corrective surgery for congenital cricotracheal stenosis, the slide cricotracheoplasty, was performed with success. Slide cricotracheoplasty is almost the same procedure as slide tracheoplasty except for two technical features. First the cricoid cartilage was split on its anterior surface. Second the split cricoid cartilage was fixed to pre vertebral fascia to maintain enough space to accommodate the sliding caudal segment of trachea because of the stiffness of the cricoid cartilage. We believe that the sliding cricotracheoplasty is a new surgical technique for congenital cricotracheal stenosis that has similar results and advantages as the sliding tracheoplasty.

Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Kidney: Report of two cases

Clear cell sarcoma is a rare malignant rumor of the kidney which occurs in children and is differentiated from Wilms' tumor by its different clinicopathologic features and natural history. Previous studies indicate that this tumor may be of mesenchymal cell origin; however, this has not been proven conclusively. Further accumulation and study need to be conducted in order to clarify the histogenesis of this tumor. We report two cases of clear cell sarcoma of the kidney which occurred in a 2 and a half-year old and a 2-year old boy. This report places special emphasis on the clinicopathologic characteristics of these two cases including electron microscopic and immunohistochemical findings. Attempts were also made to differentiate the clinicopathologic aspects of clear cell sarcoma from Wilms' tumor and speculate on the histogenesis of this rumor.