Clinical investigations of Crohn's disease in Korea / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that has difficulty in treatment due to various complications and frequent recurrence. There have been many studies on the clinical aspects of CD in western countries, however there have been few studies in Korea. We try to perform this study to elucidate the clinical features of CD in Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 62 patients diagnosed as CD in Samsung Medical Center from October 1994 to July 1999 and investigated their clinical features. RESULTS: Male to female ratio was 1.7:1 and the mean age at diagnosis was 29.6 years. The most common symptom was abdominal pain (58%), followed by diarrhea. Perianal lesions were observed in 27 cases (44%) of 62 patients. Fistula was the most common (60%) among the perianal lesions, followed by abscess, fissure, and stricture. Extraintestinal manifestations were observed in 23 cases (37%) of 62 patients. Arthritis was the most common (44%), followed by oral, skin, and ocular lesions. All patients were classified into three groups on the basis of disease extent by the radiologic and endoscopic findings; combined type (66%), colitis alone (23%), and small bowel disease alone (11%). Empirical anti-tuberculous medications were administered to 28 cases (45%) of 62 patients before CD was diagnosed. The presenting features were classified into inflammatory (71%), fistulizing (14.5%), and fibrostenotic (14.5%) type. Operation was performed in 31 cases (50%) of 62 patients during clinical course. The causes of operation were fistulizing complication (48%), fibrostenotic obstruction (32%), and indefinite diagnosis (20%). CONCLUSION: We noticed little difference in the clinical features of CD in Korea compared to those of western countries. And, intestinal tuberculosis should be considered in differential diagnosis of CD in endemic areas of tuberculosis like Korea.

Recurrent gastrointestinal hemorrhage from a jejunal duplication cyst in an adult / 대한내과학회지

Duplication of the alimentary tract is an unusual congenital anomaly which may occur at any level, from the oral cavity to the rectum. Jejunal duplication cyst is quite rare and most of them are presented in infancy with the symptoms of abdominal mass, obstruction, hemorrhage and perforation. But some cases has not been diagnosed till adult if duplication cyst was too small enough to cause symptoms. We report a case of a 28-year-old woman who presented with recurrent gastrointestinal hemorrhage as a result of an ulceration without ectopic mucosa in jejunal duplication cyst and was successfully treated with surgery.

A case of primary solitary tuberculoma of the liver treated with antituberculosis chemotherapy and surgical excision / 대한내과학회지

The solitary form of primary hepatic tuberculosis is a rare disease. We report an unusual case of primary solitary hepatic tuberculosis treated with surgical resection and second-line antituberculosis chemotherapy due to the recurrence after first-line antituberculosis chemotherapy alone. A 36-year-old man was presented with right upper abdominal discomfort, chills and weight loss for 2 months. Computerized tomography demonstrated the solitary space occupying lesion on the left lobe of liver suggesting a malignant disease. The open biopsy revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation with multinucleated giant cells and caseous necrosis. The patient was treated with antituberculosis chemotherapy for nine months and eighteen months respectively with the interval of eighteen months. But the hepatic lesion had become larger and symptoms were aggravated after the discontinuation of therapy. He underwent surgical excision of the lesioin. With second-line antituberculosis chemotherapy, the symptoms improved in postoperative days. Twenty four months later, no evidence of recurrence was noted in symptoms, laboratory findings and imaging studies.

Clinical aspects of the cystic tumors of the pancreas confirmed by operation / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: Cystic tumors of the pancreas are uncommon, and frequently mistaken for pancreatic pseudocysts. Recently if the patient is a good surgical candidate and is symptomatic, resection is the treatment of the choice without the cytological and chemical analysis by the fine needle aspiration. But, we have no data in Korean population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the subclassification of the cystic tumors of the pancreas and the differential points between pancreatic pseudocysts and cystic tumors of the pancreas which had to be operated. METHODS: fifty-nine patients with cystic lesions of the pancreas have been operated at the Samsung Seoul Hospital from 1994 to 1999 and evaluated about the subclassification, frequency and the difference between pseudocysts and cystic tumors retrogradely. RESULTS: There were 14 mucinous cystic neoplasms (mucinous cystadenomas : 11 cases, mucinous cyst-adenocarcinomas : 3 cases), 10 serous cystadenomas, 9 solid and papillary epithelial neoplasms, 8 intra-ductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, 5 pseudocysts, 4 retention cysts, 3 endocrine tumors, 1 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with cystic change, 1 solid pseudopapillary tumor, 1 pancreatic ductal adenocarci-noma with pseudocyst, 1 cavernous lymphangioma, 1 lymphoepithelial cyst and 1 simple cyst. 57.6% of the patients were females and the mean age was 50.0 years (16 years-77 years). The characteristics between pseudocysts and cystic tumors of the pancreas (sex differentiation, mean age, previous history of alcohol drinking and pancreatitis, communication with the main duct on the pancreatogram and the sign of the pancreatitis on the radiologic study) had no differences. CONCLUSION: We conclude there were no other methods to differentiate accurately the pseudocyst from the cystic tumor of the pancreas other than the operation.

A Case of Gastric Tuberculosis Presenting with Hematemesis / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Gastric tuberculosis is quite rare and usually combined with pulmonary tuberculosis. Its diagnosis is so difficult as it is often unsuspected. We report a patient with gastric tuberculosis who presented with hematemesis in Korea. Upper endoscopy showed large, deep penetrating ulcer containing an exposed vessel and adherent clot in the body. Gastric biopsies revealed only chronic inflammation and no evidence of granuloma or malignancy. Diffuse mural thickening was noted on abdominal CT. The diagnosis was made postoperatively following gastrectomy for bleeding gastric ulcer. Microscopic examination of resected stomach showed peptic detritus and noncaseating granulomas. However, multiple caseating granulomas with Lagerhan's giant cells were found on the examination of lymph nodes. The patient was treated with antituberculous therapy for 12 months without any complications.

Etiology of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Intensive Care Unit / 대한소화기내시경학회지

BACKGOUND/AIMS: Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding remains a common medical problem, with morbidity and mortality rates of GI bleeding in intensive care unit (ICU) believed to have remained unchanged. There has been no report about the etiology and clinical manifestation of GI bleeding in ICU in Korea. Therefore, we performed this study to determine the frequency, etiology, risk factors, and outcome of clinically significant GI bleeding that occurred after admission to ICU. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 1829 patients admitted to medical ICU in Samsung Medical Center from October 1994 to May 1999. Cases were enrolled the patients who developed GI bleeding more than 24 hours after admission to the medical ICU. The cases were compared with control populations: a set of ICU patients without GI bleeding matched with cases for age, gender, and length of ICU stay to evaluate the risk factors of GI bleeding. RESULTS: Clinically significant GI bleeding, confirmed by endoscopy, occurred in 71 patients of 1,829 patients (3.9%) after a mean ICU stay of 14+/-2.6 days. Gastric ulcer bleeding was the most common source of GI bleeding, accounting for 29.6% of cases overall. There were no statistical differences in underlying disease, mechanical ventilator use, heparin or steroid use, prothrombin time, prophylactic drug use such as H2 blocker and antacid use between cases and controls. However, thrombocytopenia (<50,000/mm3) was more common in cases who had GI bleeding than controls (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Gastric ulcer was the most common cause of GI bleeding in ICU and careful attention was necessary to patients with thrombocytopenia (<50,000/mm3) in ICU.

A Case of Disseminated Tuberculosis with Tuberculous Otitis Media

No abstract available.