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Purpose@#Laparoscopic surgery is a choice in several emergency settings. However, there has been no nationwide study or survey that has compared the clinical use of laparoscopic emergency surgery (LES) versus open abdominal emergency surgery (OES) in Korea.Therefore, we examined the state of LES across multiple centers in Korea and further compared this data with the global state based on published reports. @*Methods@#Data of 2,122 patients who received abdominal emergency surgery between 2014 and 2019 in three hospitals in Korea were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Several clinical factors were investigated and analyzed. @*Results@#Of the patients, 1,280 (60.3%) were in the OES group and 842 (39.7%) were in the LES group. The most commonly operated organ in OES was the small bowel (25.8%), whereas that for LES was the appendix. In appendectomy and cholecystectomy, 93.7% and 88.0% were in the LES group. In small bowel surgery, gastric surgery, and large bowel surgery, 89.4%, 92.0%, and 79.1% were in the OES group. The severity-related factors of patient status demonstrated statistically significant limiting factors of selection between LES and OES. @*Conclusion@#Although our study has several limitations, compared to the LES data from other countries, the general LES state was similar in appendectomies, cholecystectomies, and small bowel surgeries. However, in gastric and colorectal surgeries, the LES state was different from those of other countries. This study demonstrated the LES state and limiting factors of selection between LES and OES in various operated organs. Further studies are required to analyze these differences and the various limiting factors.
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Background/Aims@#The 2030 hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination targets of the World Health Organization are an 80% reduction in incidence and 65% reduction in mortality compared to the 2015 rates. However, information on the nationwide incidence and treatment rates of HCV infection are limited. We aimed to investigate the nationwide incidence and status of the care cascade for HCV infection in Korea. @*Methods@#This study used data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency linked with the data of the Korea National Health Insurance Service. Linkage to care was defined as visiting hospitals twice or more due to HCV infection within 1.5 years of the index date. The treatment rate was the number who had been prescribed antiviral medication within 1.5 years from the index date out of patients newly diagnosed with HCV. @*Results@#The new HCV infection rate was 17.2 per 100,000 person-years (n=8,810) in 2019. The number of new HCV infections was the highest in patients aged 50 to 59 years (n=2,480), and the new HCV infection rate significantly increased with age (p<0.001). Among newly infected patients with HCV, the linkage to care rate was 78.2% (78.2% men, 78.2% women) and the treatment rate was 58.1% (56.8% men, 59.3% women) within 1.5 years. @*Conclusions@#The new HCV infection rate was 17.2 per 100,000 person-years in Korea. It is necessary to continuously monitor the incidence and care cascade of HCV to establish proper strategies to reach the goal of HCV elimination by 2030.
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Background/Aims@#This study evaluated the long-term cardiovascular complications among Korean patients with hypertension and compared them with that of controls without hypertension. @*Methods@#The Korean Hypertension Cohort (KHC) enrolled 11,043 patients with hypertension and followed them for more than 10 years. Age- and sex-matched controls without hypertension were enrolled at a 1:10 ratio. We compared the incidence of cardiovascular events and death among patients and controls without hypertension. @*Results@#The mean age was 59 years, and 34.8% and 16.5% of the patients belonged to the high and moderate cardiovascular risk groups, respectively. During the 10-year follow-up, 1,591 cardiovascular events (14.4%) with 588 deaths (5.3%) occurred among patients with hypertension and 7,635 cardiovascular events (6.9%) with 4,826 deaths (4.4%) occurred among controls. Even the low-risk population with hypertension showed a higher cardiovascular event rate than the population without hypertension. Although blood pressure measurements in the clinic showed remarkable inaccuracy compared with those measured in the national health examinations, systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 150 mmHg was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events. @*Conclusions@#This long-term follow-up study confirmed the cardiovascular event rates among Korean hypertensive patients were substantial, reaching 15% in 10 years. SBP levels ≥ 150 mmHg were highly associated with occurrence of cardiovascular event rates.
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Background/Aims@#Hypertension (HT) has a significant impact on public health and medical expenses. However, HT is a chronic disease that requires the long-term follow-up of a large number of patients. @*Methods@#The Korean Hypertension Cohort (KHC) study aimed to develop a model for calculating cardiovascular risk in HT patients by linking and utilizing the detailed clinical and longitudinal data from hospitals and the national health insurance claim database, respectively. This cohort had a planned sample size of over 11,000 HT patients and 100,000 non-HT controls. Eligible patients were hypertensive patients, who were presenting for the first time and were diagnosed with HT as a main disease from 2006 to 2011. Long-term survival data over a period of approximately 9 years were obtained from the national health insurance claim and national health examination data. @*Results@#This cohort enrolled 11,083 patients with HT. The mean age was 58.87 ± 11.5 years, 50.5% were male, and 31.4% were never-treated HT. Of the enrolled patients, 32.9% and 37.7% belonged to the high and moderate cardiovascular risk groups, respectively. Initial blood pressures were 149.4 ± 18.5/88.5 ± 12.5 mmHg. During the 2 years hospital data follow-up period, blood pressures lowered to 130.8 ± 14.1/78.0 ± 9.7 mmHg with 1.9 ± 1.0 tablet doses of antihypertensive medication. Cardiovascular events occurred in 7.5% of the overall patients; 8.5%, 8.8%, and 4.7% in the high, moderate, and low risk patients, respectively. @*Conclusions@#The KHC study has provided important information on the long-term outcomes of HT patients according to the blood pressure, comorbid diseases, medication, and adherence, as well as health behaviors and health resource use.
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Background/Aims@#Hypertension (HT) has a significant impact on public health and medical expenses. However, HT is a chronic disease that requires the long-term follow-up of a large number of patients. @*Methods@#The Korean Hypertension Cohort (KHC) study aimed to develop a model for calculating cardiovascular risk in HT patients by linking and utilizing the detailed clinical and longitudinal data from hospitals and the national health insurance claim database, respectively. This cohort had a planned sample size of over 11,000 HT patients and 100,000 non-HT controls. Eligible patients were hypertensive patients, who were presenting for the first time and were diagnosed with HT as a main disease from 2006 to 2011. Long-term survival data over a period of approximately 9 years were obtained from the national health insurance claim and national health examination data. @*Results@#This cohort enrolled 11,083 patients with HT. The mean age was 58.87 ± 11.5 years, 50.5% were male, and 31.4% were never-treated HT. Of the enrolled patients, 32.9% and 37.7% belonged to the high and moderate cardiovascular risk groups, respectively. Initial blood pressures were 149.4 ± 18.5/88.5 ± 12.5 mmHg. During the 2 years hospital data follow-up period, blood pressures lowered to 130.8 ± 14.1/78.0 ± 9.7 mmHg with 1.9 ± 1.0 tablet doses of antihypertensive medication. Cardiovascular events occurred in 7.5% of the overall patients; 8.5%, 8.8%, and 4.7% in the high, moderate, and low risk patients, respectively. @*Conclusions@#The KHC study has provided important information on the long-term outcomes of HT patients according to the blood pressure, comorbid diseases, medication, and adherence, as well as health behaviors and health resource use.
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Since the confirmation of the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient on January 20 2020, COVID-19 infection rate ramped up between February and March in South Korea. This study aimed to provide information on the characteristics of the first two months of COVID-19 prevalence in South Korea and attempted to comprehend preliminary evidence from various sources. We used public data available from the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention and situation reports from the World Health Organization from February to March 2020. For additional information, health utilization data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was used for subgroup analysis. A proportion of meta-analysis was performed. We searched literatures from PubMed, KoreaMed, and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) for identifying epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 and treatment strategies. We monitored domestic and global disease control institutions’ recommendations. The search results and reports were updated every two weeks. In South Korea, the ratio of confirmed cases is divided into two groups; before and after the occurrence of a large cluster infection explosion on February 17 2020 from a religious group called the Shincheonji Church. After the global pandemic announcement by World Health Organization on March 11 2020, the fatality rate of COVID-19 seems to be related to the number of beds and general hospitals. From the literature review, we identified a strong reproduction rate, asymptomatic period or infection, rate of exacerbation, and current treatments. The COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea was inevitable, but the early explosion of infection showed the decline curve afforded by the rigorous tracing, widespread testing, and well-organized health care system.