Change of Lymphocyte Subsets of HIV-Infected Asymptomatic Persons Administrated with Korean Red Ginseng

For 16 years after the finding of HIV as an agent of AIDS in 1981, HIV therapeutic drugs of reverse transcriptase inhibitors (AZT, ddI, ddC, d4T) and protease inhibitors have been developed. Recent studies also were focused on a combination therapy by using HIV therapeutic drugs or natural compounds. Korean red ginseng (KRG) of natural compounds has been well known as a good reinforcement agent in Asia. The percentage of CD3+CD4+ T cell in nine HIV-infected patients without KRG treatment averaged 17.8% on baseline and decreased 15.8% after 6 months, whereas the percentage of the cell in fifteen HIV-infected patients with KRG treatment averaged 15.3% on baseline and increased up to 18.9% after the same period. The average percentage of CD3+CD8+ T cell of KRG-nontreated and KRG-treated HIV patients increased after 6 months 47.8% to 50.7% and 44.7% to 51.4%, respectively; and the average percentage of B and NK cell in the KRG-nontreated and KRG-treated HIV patients decreased 9.4% to 7.9% and 13.0% to 9.7%, 8.9% to 8.5% and 16.2% to 11.6%, respectively, KRG, therefore, didn't have any effects on the CD3+CD8+ T cell, B cell, and NK cell. However, it seems that KRG has a potential activity for stimulating the

Clinical Evaluation of Anesthetic Management for Pheochromocytoma Following Prazosin Pre-treament / 대한마취과학회지

Perioperative management of patients with pheochromocytoma is challenging. Accordingly, proper preoperative preparation is important. Prazosin, a selective alpha I blocker, may offer a potential advantage. This 54-year-old woman was treated with prazosin 2 mg, b.i.d. for 15 days and also with propranolol 20 mg, b.i.d. for a few days intermittently before the proposed surgery. Both symptoms and blood pressure were well controlled effectively. Induction of anesthesia was accomplished with nitrolingual spray, fentanyl 100 ug, 1% idocaine 50 mg, 2.5% thiopental sodium 200 mg, vecuronium 6 mg and 100% O2-enflurane. During the surgical and anesthetic procedure, the patient showed a reduced incidence of excessive blood-pressure variations and no arrhythmia was present except for supraventricular ectopic beats. Conclusively, we believe that careful preoperative preparation is recommended to minimize intraoperative hemodynamic dieturbances and their sequelae.

Intraoperative Thrombelastographic ( TEG ) Monitoring and Treatment of Massive Transfused Patients / 대한마취과학회지

We have 3 more cases of experiences of massive transfusion undergoing hepatobiliary surgery above 20 units of whole blood, packed RBCs, FFP or cryoprecipitate under thrombelastographic guidance and monitoring intraoperatively. One of them had been transfused with 98 units of whole blood and 16 units of PRBC during a couple of times operation without any post-massive transfused pulmonary complications. TEG was originally developed by Hartert in 1948 but its clinical use has been limited. Recently as increases of severe and persistent coagulopathy that accompanies end-stage liver diseases and leads to massive intraoperatve bleeding, minute-to-minute monitoring of the coagulation system is mandatory for successful completion of surgery and for patient survival. Under the condition of our clinical experiences TEG appears to be a very effective method of monitoring blood coagulation. First, blood coagulabilty can be observed rapidly and simply in acute clinical situations within 30 minutes. Second, it assesses the quality of blood clot including the influence of cellular and humoral elements and pathologic conditions. The last, under the reliable guidance of TEG we could facilitate the segmental blood transfusion rather than using whole blood intraoperatively and it is to be a moment of the development of PRBC transfusion set by Kim et al.

Trends of Anesthetic Managements in 20 Years / 대한마취과학회지

The anesthetic experience in 20 years was evaluated by statistically analyzing the total of 17,595 cases which were performed at S.N.U.H. from 1960 through 1979 according to age, sex, anesthetic agents and methods. To simplify the analysis, the authors selected the anesthetic cases of 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, and 1978. The results were as follows: 1) General anesthesia has been used with increasing frequencies and local anesthesia with decreasing frequencies during the period. 2) More than half of the totaI cases were performed for the patients in their second or third decades. 3) General surgery cases were the majority of the total. 4) The usage of halothane has been increased ever since its introduction into clinical anesthesia in this hospital. 5) For intravenous induction, thiopental has been used as the main agent, and succinylcholine and pancuronium as the major muscle relaxants since 1975. 6) For anesthetic technique, semiclosed circle absorption system has been employed in almost all cases, and non-rebreathing system has been used recently with increasing frequencies in pediatric anesthesia.