Development of Manual Muscle Testing and Rating (review) / 中国康复理论与实践

Manual Muscle Testing is a widely used muscle power testing method in rehabilitation practice. Although it's a key content in rehabilitation medicine and rehabilitation therapy, there are some disagreements in lots of books introducing the development and rating system of it. This article reviewed the development of Manual Muscle Testing and different rating systems.

A survey on the appropriate level of premiums for National Health Insurance

As the National Health Insurance Law was established in 2000, the finances of workplace health insurance and regional health insurance were integrated. However, since employee health insurance (workplace insurance) and self-employed health insurance (community insurance) still use different contribution rating systems, the problem of inequity of premiums has caused ongoing controversy. Therefore, to examine the public's satisfaction with premiums calculation methods, and collect opinions on solving the problem of inequity of premiums, this survey was performed. A computer-assisted telephone interview with multi-stage stratified sampling of the population in Korea was performed. Responses were obtained from 1,016 people aged 25 to 64 years. The analyses showed that, to the question about the premiums calculation methods, more respondents answered that they were unsatisfied (41.4%) than satisfied (36.6%). The responses differed depending on the type of health insurance. The proportion of those who were satisfied with their insurance was relatively higher among those with employee health insurance. On the other hand, among those with self-employed health insurance, the proportion of those who were dissatisfied with insurance was 3 times more common than satisfaction with it, showing that those who belong to the self-employed health insurance group are less satisfied with the premiums calculation methods. It was also found that the majority people perceive that the current single payer health insurance system should be divided into mutually separate employee and self-employed health insurance systems or a multiple payer health insurance system (60.3%). To achieve premium equity in the future, the Health Insurance Corporation should make a greater effort to determine income levels correctly. In the institutional improvement process of the premiums contribution rating system in the future, it seems necessary to carry out further research on a multiple payer insurance system reflecting the attitudes and demands of the people.

Adaptação transcultural do Mental States Rating System para o português brasileiro / Cross-cultural adaptation of the Mental States Rating System to Brazilian Portuguese

INTRODUÇÃO: O artigo apresenta a adaptação transcultural do Mental States Rating System, uma escala de análise de conteúdo do discurso, seja ele falado, descrito ou filmado, que abrange de modo amplo tipos de contratransferência. MÉTODO: Foram realizadas as etapas de equivalência conceitual, equivalência de itens, equivalência semântica, equivalência operacional, equivalência funcional e aprovação da versão final pelo autor original do instrumento. RESULTADOS: Os critérios de equivalência foram satisfeitos, tendo a versão final sido aprovada pelo autor do instrumento original. CONCLUSÃO: A adaptação do Mental States Rating System disponibiliza para uso um instrumento que não só abrange todas as categorias de contratransferência descritas na literatura, mas as amplia, através da Teoria dos Estados Mentais. Constitui, desse modo, uma ferramenta de grande utilidade para pesquisa em psicoterapia e psicanálise, onde a contratransferência tem se mostrado um importante recurso, tornando-se ainda mais crucial nas patologias fundamentadas em estágios precoces do desenvolvimento, nos casos graves e nos traumas severos.

INTRODUCTION: This article presents a cross-cultural adaptation of the Mental States Rating System, a content analysis scale applied to spoken, written or taped material, which covers a wide range of countertransference categories. METHOD: The following steps were performed: conceptual equivalence, item equivalence, semantic equivalence, operational equivalence, functional equivalence, and approval of the final version by the author of the original instrument. RESULTS: The study has reached the objectives of equivalence, and the final Brazilian Portuguese version has been approved by the original author. CONCLUSION: The study provides a Brazilian Portuguese version of an instrument that not only covers all the range of categories encompassed by countertransference described in the literature, but also expands it through the Mental States Theory. This represents a valuable tool for research on psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, where countertransference has proved to be an important resource, especially for the treatment of diseases based on early stages of development, for severe mental diseases and severe trauma.

Long Term Follow up Results of Threaded Fusion Cage(T.F.C.) in Surgical Treatment of Spondylolisthesis

The goal of operation in spondylolisthesis is improving radiculopathy and relieving lower back pain preventing further progression of the slip, through decompression of neural elements and fusion of spinal pseudoarthrosis, respectively. The author performed the posterior lumbar interbody fusion technique using a Threaded Fusion Cage(T.F.C.) for 41 patients as the surgical treatment for mild spondylolisthesis. All patients enrolled in the study were implanted with a T.F.C. at a single unstable level. We have investigated the outcome results for at least one year(mean 25.8 months). Of these patients 95% have shown solid fusions. Using the Prolo scale for economic and functional rating, the combined results of excellent, good score is 51%, but clinically symptomatic improvement is 66%. Therefore, posterior lumbar interbody fusion using T.F.C. was useful in treatment of mild degree spondylolisthesis.

Clinical Analysis of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome

One hundred thirty-five patients undergone microdiscectomy of lumbar disc disease were analysed with soft-ware program which designed for effective analysis for spinal in-patients since February, 1990. Owing to that program, all the patients could be easily analyzed and get a regular follow-up. The surgical result was evaluated by our own score rating system which consists of 4 items:1) Frequency of medication, 2) Degree of social activity, 3) Post-operative symptom compared to pre-operative state and 4) Patient's satisfaction with the operation. According to that system, 21 patients(15.6%) were estimated with failure following microdiscectomy. Among them 6 patients of psychosocial problem, 4 patients of technical errors and 2 patients of recurrence were an important causes of failure. For the purpose of effective surgery for lumbar disc surgery, a careful analysis of the cases of surgical failure should be attempted and also a regular follow-up can be importment factor for more accurate estimation of surgical result.