RESUMO
We report an extremely severe case of dysphagia in an elderly patient. Tracheostomy alone was found to be the cause of severe upper esophageal opening dysfunction. An 84-year-old woman was admitted with dyspnea. During hospitalization, she had respiratory failure and underwent a tracheostomy. On day 41 in the hospital, she complained of dysphagia and was a swallowing evaluation was done at the rehabilitation department. We ruled out other etiologies of upper esophageal dysfunction through a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and endoscopic evaluation. Through follow-up tests, it was found retrospectively that extreme dysphagia could have occurred through the following mechanism: the airway was not protected at the time of the tracheostomy because the movement of the epiglottis did not appear to be normal. This was due to the reduction in laryngeal function affecting the upper esophageal opening after the tracheostomy, and at the same time, the power to push the bolus was weak. After 6 months, at the third test, she had improved enough to ingest a soft diet and fluid with thickeners, so she was able to start an oral diet without decannulation. It is thus important to recognize that tracheostomy alone can cause extremely severe aspiration. If these findings are observed in patients undergoing tracheostomy, it is necessary to check the movements of the epiglottis properly and evaluate whether the condition can be improved by rehabilitation treatment.
RESUMO
Purpose@#There has been a lack of study on the pains of Korean archers, who have been getting remarkable results in international competitions. In this study, we investigated the epidemiology of shoulder pain, which is known as the most commonly complained symptom of Korean archers. @*Methods@#The participants were 58 elite archers in the city of Gwangju, South Korea. The method of the study was a retrospective cohort study by questionnaire and ultrasound and physical examination. Variables of individual characteristics, training patterns, the character of pain were analyzed in different age groups. Furthermore, groups were divided into those with shoulder pain and those without pain to analyze each group’s shoulder function. @*Results@#The most common injury was shoulder injury (65.6%), and hand injury was the second-highest prevalent injury (29.3%). These two injuries were most prevalent in all age groups. Among 58 participants, 40 showed shoulder pain, but most were mild (n=30, 51.7%) and severe pain was observed in some participants (n=2, 3.5%). Mild pain was most common in each group and it showed the highest prevalence in college students (70.0%). Pain was most observed in the drawing arm, and it was triggered most when drawing the bow. In the shoulder function test category, Constant-Murley score and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score were observed the lowest in the group with shoulder pain with statistical significance. @*Conclusion@#Shoulder injury had a high prevalence in Korean archers. Correspondingly, those with shoulder pain had lower shoulder function test scores.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the gold-tandard treatment for symptomatic gallbladder diseases. The evaluation and the treatment of common duct pathology is an essential component in the surgical management of biliary tract disease. The purpose of the present study was to identify the value and the importance of laparoscopic cholangiography compared to endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC) in a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and to suggest the role of laparoscopic cholangiography in the management of patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: A laparoscopic cholecystectomy was attempted in two hundred six consecutive patients treated at Hallym University between January 1993 and December 1996. Patients were divided into three groups: In group I, 167 patients were examined with preoperative ERC while in group II, 17 patients were examined with laparoscopic cholangiography; Group III included 22 patients who were not examined with preoperative ERC or laparoscopic cholangiography. RESULTS: The average age was 52.78 years in group I, 45.62 years in group II, and 49.22 years in group III. The average operative time was 76.88 minutes in group I, 131.47 minutes in group II, and 85.22 minutes in group III. The operative time in group II was longer than that in group I (p<0.001). The duration of postoperative hospitalization was 4.9 days in group I and 4.11 days in group II, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.166). Conversion to an open cholecystectomy was 17/167 (10%) in group I, 1/17 (5%) in group II and 5/22 (22%). No complications or deaths occurred that were due to laparoscopic cholangiography. The postoperative complications in group I/II/III included bile leakage (3/0/2), bleeding in the bed of the gallbladder (5/0/0), wound bleeding (2/1/1), recurrent common duct stones (2/0/0), subcutaneous emphysema (4/1/0), shoulder pain (12/3/0), and wound infections (15/2/1). CONCLUSIONS: Although cholangiography may not be indicated for all patients undergoing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, it will eventually be required. We conclude that laparoscopic cholangiography, as well as ERC, is a good method for evaluating the biliary tree. Laparoscopic cholangiography is clinically useful in patients who have negative ultrasonography and a dilated bile duct. Also, laparoscopic cholangiography has many advantages, especially at a teaching hospital: it outlines the anatomy of the extrahepatic biliary tree, identifies anomalies of surgical importance in time before iatrogenic damage is inflicted, detects stones in the cystic duct, discovers unsuspected stones, and develops experience with the technique. However, it is technically diffult to cannulate cystic duct and extends the operating time.