Restoration for the foregut surgery: bridging gaps between foregut surgery practice and academia

Foregut surgery largely involves benign diseases, and not only malignant diseases. However, for foregut surgeons in Asia, this fact has not been extensively utilized in their clinical practice due to the high burden of gastric cancer surgery. Although the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in Eastern Asia, including Korea, is increasing, antireflux surgery (ARS) is still a fairly rare procedure in Korea. ARS is effective as proton pump inhibitors and is cost-effective compared to continuous double-dose proton pump inhibitors in patients with severe GERD. Therefore, we should focus on ARS as a treatment option for GERD also in Asian population. Similarly, although bariatric/metabolic surgery is effective in weight reduction and diabetes mellitus (DM) remission in patients with morbid obesity or DM, bariatric/metabolic surgery is only performed in a limited number of patients. Given that the prevalence of obesity and DM is continuously increasing in Korea, bariatric/metabolic surgery should become an interest among Korean foregut surgeons and should be considered a treatment for obesity and DM. Furthermore, there are new surgical fields that can control both benign and malignant diseases. Oncometabolic surgery is a field under foregut surgery that treats both malignant and benign components of a condition, an example being the control of metabolic syndrome while performing gastric cancer surgery. Therefore, in future gastric cancer treatment, oncometabolic surgery can be applied to patients with gastric cancer accompanied by obesity or metabolic syndrome.

The history and prospect of laparoscopic gastric cancer surgery / 中华消化外科杂志

Gastric malignant tumor is one of the most common and fatal tumors in the world. According to data in 2012, gastric cancer ranks the fifth and third in the incidence rate and tumor related mortality rate of malignant tumors worldwide. Therefore, gastric cancer is one of the diseases that seriously endanger people′s health. Laparoscopic surgery not only minimize surgical trauma, but also reduce complications and accelerate recovery of patients. Therefore, laparoscopic surgery has gradually replaced open surgery in the field of surgery. Based on related prospective, randomized researches and literatures, development history of laparoscopic surgery of gastric cancer, and combined with author′s clinical experience and the latest insights, the authors make an investigation on the laparoscopic surgery of gastric cancer.

Association of Serum Vitamin D Status with Prediabetes and Prehypertension in Korean Adults: An Analysis of the 2013–2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data

Background@#Recent studies have indicated that vitamin D deficiency is associated with diabetes and hypertension in adults. However, this association has not been sufficiently studied in cases of prediabetes and prehypertension. Thus, this study aimed to clarify the relationship between vitamin D levels and prediabetes and prehypertension in Korean adults. @*Methods@#Data from 1,808 adults aged ≥19 years who participated in the 2013–2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were included in this study. The odds ratio of prediabetes and prehypertension according to the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) status was calculated using multivariable logistic regression analysis. @*Results@#Mean serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly different among females with normal glucose levels, prediabetes, and diabetes mellitus. Further, the mean levels were not significantly different in both males and females of all ages with normal blood pressure, prehypertension, and hypertension. In addition, logistic regression analysis showed that serum 25(OH)D levels were not significantly associated with the odds ratio of prediabetes and prehypertension after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, calcium supplement intake, income, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and fasting glucose. @*Conclusion@#Serum vitamin D status was not independently associated with the risks of prediabetes and prehypertension in Korean adults.

Associations of Physical Activity and Sitting Time with Serum Vitamin D Status in Korean Adults: Results from the 2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background@#Recent evidence has reported the relationships between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) insufficiency and chronic diseases. This study examined the association of physical activity and sitting time with vitamin D status. @*Methods@#This study analyzed the data of 1,598 adults aged ≥19 who participated in the 2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as a serum 25(OH)D level of ≤20 ng/mL. The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of vitamin D insufficiency according to physical activity and sitting time were calculated using a multivariable logistic regression analysis. @*Results@#The mean levels of serum 25(OH)D were 16.5 ng/mL in males and 15.2 ng/mL in females, respectively and was significantly higher in the participants with sitting times of <5 hours/day than those with sitting times of ≥5 hours/day. After adjusting for confounding variables, sitting time of <5 hours/day was associated with decreased odds of vitamin D insufficiency as compared with sitting time of ≥5 hours/day in the total participants and females. In addition, the odds ratio for vitamin D insufficiency was significantly lower in the group with sitting times of <5 hours/ day than in the group with sitting times of ≥5 hours/day even among people with low physical activity in the total participants and females. @*Conclusion@#Serum 25(OH)D level was insufficient in the Korean adults and shorter sitting time was related to lower odds ratio of vitamin D insufficiency. Our findings suggest that sitting time is an independent factor of serum vitamin D status.

Discordance in prediction for prognosis of type 2 diabetes after metabolic surgery: comparison of the ABCD, DiaRem, and individualized metabolic surgery models

PURPOSE: Metabolic surgery has been performed as a treatment option for uncontrolled type 2 diabetes (T2D), and several scoring systems for predicting postoperative T2D remission have been proposed. This study was designed to assess consistency of 3 existing scoring systems in patients with T2D duration <1 year. METHODS: This study included 186 patients with T2D enrolled in a university hospital prospective database between 2011 and 2013. Externally validated scoring systems for predicting T2D prognosis after metabolic surgery were identified and selected through systematic literature search. We assessed concordance between ABCD, DiaRem, and individualized metabolic surgery (IMS) scores in participants using kappa statistical analysis and 1-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: Of the participants, 52 and 82 patients were expected to have favorable T2D remission after metabolic surgery with ABCD score of 10–5 and DiaRem score of 0–7, respectively, and a slight-to-fair concordance was shown between the 2 scoring systems (kappa measure, 0.07; standard error [SE], 0.05 and kappa measure, 0.25; SE, 0.19, respectively). The DiaRem score increased with T2D severity determined by IMS score (P < 0.001), while the ABCD score showed no significant association with IMS score. CONCLUSION: ABCD and DiaRem scores showed significant discordance when applied to potential metabolic surgery candidates in whom postoperative T2D remission rate was highly expected. The IMS score showed a dose-response association with DiaRem score but had no significant association with the ABCD score.

The Prevalence of Osteoarthritis and Risk Factors in the Korean Population: The Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (VI-1, 2013) / 가정의학회지

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis is highly prevalent, especially among the elderly. However, its risk factors have not been well identified, especially in the Korean population. This study aimed to assess the epidemiologic characteristics and risk factors of knee osteoarthritis in the Korean population. METHODS: Data of 2,280 (1,295 women) participants of the 2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey aged ≥50 years who underwent knee radiography were analyzed. According to the American College of Rheumatology clinical/radiographic classification criteria, knee osteoarthritis was defined as knee pain and radiographic knee osteoarthritis. The association between risk factors and knee osteoarthritis was analyzed using the chi-square test and binominal logistic regression. RESULTS: The participants had an average age of 62.6 years; 56.8% of them were women. The average body mass index was 24.2 kg/m2, and 296 (13%) participants were diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. After adjustment for multiple risk factors, age of ≥65 years (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.552; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.868–3.486), female sex (OR, 2.050; 95% CI, 1.275–3.295), obesity (body mass index, ≥25.0 kg/m2; OR, 1.563; 95% CI, 1.191–2.051), hypertension (OR, 1.394; 95% CI, 1.052–1.846), low educational level (lower than or equal to elementary school: OR, 4.761; 95% CI, 2.131–10.635; middle school: OR, 3.184; 95% CI, 1.375–7.369), and low strength exercise frequency (<2 times/wk; OR, 1.829; 95% CI, 1.202–2.784) increased the risk of knee osteoarthritis. CONCLUSION: Old age, sex, obesity, hypertension, low educational level, and low strength exercise frequency were found to be risk factors for knee osteoarthritis.

Association between Periodontitis and Sarcopenia in Korean Adult Population

BACKGROUND: The development of sarcopenia and periodontitis is multifactorial, and several factors that play a role in periodontitis are thought to contribute to sarcopenia. This study evaluated the association between periodontitis and sarcopenia using data from the 2008–2009 Korea National Examination Survey.METHODS: We used the data of 2,340 Korean adults aged more than 65 years from the 2008–2009 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Sarcopenia was defined as the appendicular skeletal muscle mass divided by weight (kg/kg) <2 deviations less than the sex-specific mean for young adults. Periodontal health .was measured using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI), and periodontitis was defined as a CPI score of 3 or 4.RESULTS: Analysis using the chi-square test and linear logistic regression showed that the prevalence of periodontitis increased significantly. The odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for sarcopenia was 2.498 (1.366–4.569). After adjusting for age and sex, the OR (95% CI) was 2.430 (1.323–4.465). The OR (95% CI) after adjusting for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer was 2.168 (1.160–4.051).CONCLUSION: Sarcopenia is a representative lifestyle disease associated with periodontitis. In addition, sarcopenia is related to poor quality of life, especially mobility and usual activity. Therefore, greater attention must be paid to patients with periodontitis and they must be evaluated for sarcopenia to prevent and improve poor quality of life.