Development of an Emergency Abdominal Ultrasound Course in Korea: 1-Year Experience

PURPOSE: This report describes our 1-year experience with an emergency abdominal ultrasound course that we developed for emergency medicine residents and physicians. METHODS: The five-hour course consisted of didactic lectures and hands-on practice. A 1-hour didactic lecture was provided. The lecture consisted of basic ultrasound physics and principles, and anatomy for abdominal ultrasound. In the hands-on session, the instructors demonstrated the abdominal ultrasound techniques and then the students practiced on standard patients. Participants evaluated the programs using a five or ten point Likert scale. After two months to one year, the participants evaluated the usefulness of the course, their knowledge, and their self confidence. RESULTS: A total of 61 trainees participated in eight courses. The evaluation scores for overall quality of content, clinical utility, quality of educational method, quality of instructor, and time allocation were 4.4+/-0.7, 4.5+/-0.6, 4.3+/-0.6, 4.4+/-0.6, 4.1+/-0.7, respectively. Score of self-confidence of each scan before and after the course were as follows: liver scan, 3.2+/-2.1 to 6.9+/-1.2; gallbladder and bile duct scan 3.0+/-2.5 to 6.9+/-1.2; pancreas scan, 2.4+/-2.1 to 6.3+/-1.3; renal scan, 3.6+/-2.6 to 7.6+/-1.3. Evaluation scores were followed up after two months to one year to estimate self confidence of each scan. Results were as follows: liver scan, 6.1+/-1.5; gallbladder and bile duct scan, 6.5+/-1.6; pancreas scan, 5.5+/-1.8; renal scan, 7.2+/-1.5. CONCLUSION: The Emergency Abdominal Ultrasound Course is a fairly successful course. But continuous improvement of educational content, and development of an objective evaluation tool need to be done.

Clinical Characteristics of Inflammtory Pseudotumor of the Orbit / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory pseudotumor is not malignant, but similar to malignancy lesions with respect to its clinical and radiological manifestations. It is well-known to opthalmologists and neurosurgeons, but unfamiliar to otolaryngologists. The objective of this study is to determine the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory pseudotumor of the orbit. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We reviewed 17 patients who visited Kangnam St. Mary's hospital and were diagnosed with inflammatory pseudotumor with clinical manifestations and radiological studies between September, 1994 and December, 2006. RESULTS: Seventeen patients were treated with high dose steroid, and of these, 12 showed clinical improvement, although 7 of these patients later showed recurrence. Of the five patients who initially showed no clinical improvement, one received radiation therapy but did not show improvement whereas two patients showed no improvement. One patient's symptoms improved after surgical decompression. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that the initial treatment of inflammatory pseudotumor should be high dose steroid treatment without improvement and the second treatment should be radiation therapy or surgical treatment.