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Objectives@#Since the enactment of the School Nutrition Act in 1981, school lunch programs in South Korea have grown quantitatively and qualitatively with a current student participation rate of 99.8%. Nonetheless, educational materials are needed to reduce misunderstanding and ignorance about school lunch programs. This study aimed to develop 3 educational videos that help students of various ages (kindergarteners/lower-grade elementary, upper-grade elementary, and secondary school, respectively), understand the school lunch program. @*Methods@#A scenario was created, was made, and the opinions on the scenario from experts in foodservice sectors were collected. A survey was conducted to students and parents to determine topics they wanted to know about school foodservice. The final videos were produced using this information and the expert opinions. The data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 for Mac (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA); a P-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. @*Results@#Three videos on school foodservice were developed for various age levels of students: kindergarten/lower-grade elementary, upper-grade elementary, and secondary school. Additionally, English subtitles were included for the multicultural student population. These videos, each lasting about 7 minutes, cover topics such as nutrition, hygiene, and the cultural significance of the school lunch program. The survey results showed that parents and students wanted to know the following topics about the school lunch program: “nutritionally balanced diet” (11.9%), “purchasing safe food ingredients” (10.9%), and “healthy eating habits” (9.9%). @*Conclusions@#The developed videos will serve as valuable educational resources on school foodservice, foster a deeper understanding of the school lunch program in parents and students, and potentially address their inquiries regarding production processes, nutrition, hygiene, cultural heritage, and health.
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Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is an uncommon disease in young adults, unless there is a congenital anomaly in the aortic valve. We report a case of CAVD identified during the autopsy of a 26-year-old male soldier who died in his room while sitting on a chair. Macroscopic examination revealed multiple nodules in the semilunar cusps of the aortic valve, and that the commissure of semilunar valve cusps was slightly fused. Under microscopic examination, fibrotic nodules with neovascularization were identified in the fibrosa layer of the aortic valve, although neither calcification nor chronic inflammation were identified in the fibrotic nodule. Mitral valve prolapse and left ventricular hypertrophy with interstitial fibrosis were also identified. Microscopic examination of CAVD typically shows calcified nodules in the fibrosa layer of the valve, but fibrosis alone, without calcification, can be observed in the early stage of the disease. Death from CAVD is rare in young adults, so careful examination must be taken not to misdiagnose this condition with rheumatic valvular disease, which is relatively common in this population.
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BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES@#Many studies have revealed an association between fat mass and the obesity-related gene (FTO) and obesity. On the other hand, no meta-analysis was conducted with data from only Koreans. Therefore, this study performed a meta-analysis using Korean data to provide evidence for the association between FTO single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the risk of obesity among Korean adults.SUBJECT/METHODS: Meta-analysis was finally conducted with data extracted from seven datasets of four studies performed on Korean adults after the screening passed. Five kinds of FTO SNPs (rs9939609, rs7193144, rs9940128, rs8050136, and rs9926289) were included, and the relationship between FTO SNPs and body mass index (BMI) was investigated using linear regression with an additive model adjusted for covariants, such as age, sex, and area. @*RESULTS@#The minor alleles of FTO SNPs were associated with increased BMI (odds ratio [OR], 1.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21–1.42). In sub-group analysis, FTO rs9939609 T>A was significantly associated with BMI (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.06–1.42). The other FTO SNPs together were significantly associated with BMI (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.25–1.49). The publication bias was not observed based on Egger’s test. @*CONCLUSIONS@#This meta-analysis showed that minor alleles in the FTO SNPs were significantly associated with an increased BMI among Korean adults. This meta-analysis is the first to demonstrate that minor alleles in the FTO SNPs contribute significantly to the increased risk of obesity among Korean adults using data from a Korean population.
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Purpose@#We examined the effects of the 8-week moderate-intensity Pilates exercise program on body composition, balance ability, metabolic parameters, arterial condition, and eating habits among overweight and obese women. @*Methods@#From the general sample of overweight or obese Korean women (body mass index ≥ 23 kg/m2 ), those who had not been diagnosed with any chronic degenerative diseases were enrolled in the study (n = 39). After 8 weeks of the Pilates exercise program, the participants were subdivided into adherence and non-adherence groups. Among the study participants, 24 women were matched for age and menopausal status to reduce the bias, and then finally included for the comparison (Pilates-adherence, n = 12; Pilates-non-adherence, n = 12). @*Results@#The body balance measured by the Y-balance test, body mass index, and subcutaneous fat areas were significantly improved in both groups. However, the Pilatesadherence group showed more positive changes in body balance and had significant improvement in body composition parameters such as waist size, visceral fat area, systolic blood pressure, arterial aging index, fasting blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin than the Pilates-non-adherence group. In addition, the nutrition quotient for Korean adults (balance,moderation, and behavior except diversity) were significantly improved in both groups after dietary education. However, the participants did not show dramatic improvement in the metabolic parameters, because all the study subjects were in relatively good health and did not have any diagnosed diseases. @*Conclusion@#This study demonstrated that higher adherence to the Pilates exercise program together with a modification of eating habits may effectively improve body balance, body composition, and obesity-related parameters among overweight and obese women.
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We report on a compact, ultrahigh-vacuum compatible optical assembly to create large-scale, two-dimensional optical lattices for use in experiments with ultracold atoms. The assembly consists of an octagon-shaped spacer made from ultra-low-expansion glass, to which we optically contact four fused silica cavity mirrors, making it highly mechanically and thermally stable. The mirror surfaces are nearly plane-parallel, which allows us to create two perpendicular cavity modes with diameters â¼1m m. Such large mode diameters are desirable to increase the optical lattice homogeneity, but lead to strong angular sensitivities of the coplanarity between the two cavity modes. We demonstrate a procedure to precisely position each mirror substrate that achieves a deviation from coplanarity of d=1(5)µm. Creating large optical lattices at arbitrary visible and near-infrared wavelengths requires significant power enhancements to overcome limitations in the available laser power. The cavity mirrors have a customized low-loss mirror coating that enhances the power at a set of relevant visible and near-infrared wavelengths by up to 3 orders of magnitude..
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Purpose@#This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) after platinum-containing chemotherapy. We also identified clinical biomarkers which may be predictive of patient prognosis. @*Materials and Methods@#We analyzed 125 patients with R/M HNSCC who received ICIs, retrospectively. Overall response rate (ORR) was the primary study outcome. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were the secondary study outcomes. @*Results@#The patients received anti–programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) (n=73, 58%), anti–programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) (n=24, 19%), or a combination of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 and anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (n=28, 22%). The median age was 57 years (range, 37 to 87). The location of the primary tumor was in the oral cavity in 28% of the cases, followed by oropharynx (27%), hypopharynx (20%), and larynx (12%). The ORR was 15% (19/125). With 12.3 months of median follow-up, median PFS was 2.7 months. Median OS was 10.8 months. A neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) > 4 was significantly associated with poor response to ICIs (odds ratio, 0.30; p=0.022). A sum of the target lesions > 40 mm (hazard ratio [HR], 1.53; p=0.046] and a NLR > 4 (HR, 1.75; p=0.009) were considered to be predictive markers of short PFS. A poor performance status (HR, 4.79; p 40 mm (HR, 1.93; p=0.025), and an NLR > 4 (HR, 3.36; p < 0.001) were the significant predictors for poor survival. @*Conclusion@#ICIs exhibited favorable antitumor activity in R/M HNSCC. Clinically, our findings can be used to recognize patients benefit from receiving ICI.
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Purpose@#This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) after platinum-containing chemotherapy. We also identified clinical biomarkers which may be predictive of patient prognosis. @*Materials and Methods@#We analyzed 125 patients with R/M HNSCC who received ICIs, retrospectively. Overall response rate (ORR) was the primary study outcome. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were the secondary study outcomes. @*Results@#The patients received anti–programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) (n=73, 58%), anti–programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) (n=24, 19%), or a combination of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 and anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (n=28, 22%). The median age was 57 years (range, 37 to 87). The location of the primary tumor was in the oral cavity in 28% of the cases, followed by oropharynx (27%), hypopharynx (20%), and larynx (12%). The ORR was 15% (19/125). With 12.3 months of median follow-up, median PFS was 2.7 months. Median OS was 10.8 months. A neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) > 4 was significantly associated with poor response to ICIs (odds ratio, 0.30; p=0.022). A sum of the target lesions > 40 mm (hazard ratio [HR], 1.53; p=0.046] and a NLR > 4 (HR, 1.75; p=0.009) were considered to be predictive markers of short PFS. A poor performance status (HR, 4.79; p 40 mm (HR, 1.93; p=0.025), and an NLR > 4 (HR, 3.36; p < 0.001) were the significant predictors for poor survival. @*Conclusion@#ICIs exhibited favorable antitumor activity in R/M HNSCC. Clinically, our findings can be used to recognize patients benefit from receiving ICI.
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Freeman-Sheldon syndrome (FSS) is a rare distal arthrogryposis syndrome. There are few reports on the respiratory insufficiency of FSS. Additionally, there is no detailed information on pulmonary functional evaluation. A 17-year-old male patient with FSS developed respiratory failure, leading him to be admitted to hospital several times for evaluation and treatment. Of those times he was admitted, two were due to pneumonia. His pulmonary functions were indicative of a restrictive lung disease potentially caused by severe scoliosis. After a non-invasive ventilatorwas applied correctly to the patient, pulmonary hypertension was normalized. His pulmonary function has been maintained for 13 years. Since receiving proper respiratory care, which includes assisted coughing methods, the patient has not developed pneumonia. It is important to properly evaluate the pulmonary function of patients who have FSS and scoliosis to eliminate the risk of long-term respiratory complications.
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OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of infrared thermography in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome by comparing with electrodiagnostic and ultrasonographic findings.METHOD: From January 2014 to October 2017, electrodiagnosis, ultrasound, and digital infrared thermal image (DITI) of unilateral carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosed in a single hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The subjects with bilateral symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, fibromyalgia, rheumatic disease, systemic infection, inflammation, malignant tumor, and other musculoskeletal disorders such as finger osteoarthritis, peripheral neuropathy, cervical radiculopathy, and the previous history of surgery were excluded.RESULTS: Of 53 patients diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, 11 were male and 42 were female. The visual analogue scale was 4.9 ± 1.9, and the duration of symptom was 11.8 ± 12.5 months. There was no statistically significant difference in the body surface temperature between the unaffected and affected sides. The severity of symptoms, electrodiagnostic findings, and cross-sectional area of the median nerve significantly correlates to each other. The temperature difference between the second fingers of the affected and unaffected sides showed a weak correlation with the amplitude of sensory nerve action potential and onset latency of compound muscle action potential, when there was no significant correlation with the other parameters.CONCLUSION: The difference in temperature on the surface of the body, which can be confirmed by DITI, is little diagnostic value when DITI is performed in unilateral carpal tunnel syndrome patients, especially when compared with ultrasonography.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Male , Action Potentials , Carpal Tunnel Syndrome , Electrodiagnosis , Fibromyalgia , Fingers , Inflammation , Median Nerve , Methods , Osteoarthritis , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases , Peripheral Vascular Diseases , Radiculopathy , Retrospective Studies , Rheumatic Diseases , Thermography , Thyroid Diseases , UltrasonographyABSTRACT
Transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD) is similar to congenital leukemia, with leukocytosis, increased peripheral blast cells, and hepatomegaly in the neonatal period. Although TMD occurs only in patients with Down syndrome and trisomy 21 mosaicism, there have been reports of congenital leukemia with trisomy 21 limited to hematopoietic cells showing spontaneous resolution. We identified trisomy 21 in the leukemic cells in a patient with congenital leukemia. As there was no other gene abnormality, we stopped chemotherapy, and the disease resolved spontaneously. We reviewed the cases of clonal trisomy 21 TMD and found that their clinical features were similar to those of TDM associated with Down syndrome. In conclusion, in a phenotypically normal patient with suspected congenital leukemia, it is necessary to confirm the presence of 21 trisomy. If the neonate has only trisomy 21 without other gene abnormalities, intensive chemotherapy may not be required.
Subject(s)
Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21 , Down Syndrome , Drug Therapy , GATA1 Transcription Factor , Hepatomegaly , Leukemia , Leukocytosis , Mosaicism , Myeloproliferative Disorders , TrisomyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate and demonstrate persistent increase of peak cough flow after mechanical in-exsufflator application, in patients with neuromuscular diseases and pneumonia. METHODS: A mechanical in-exsufflator was applied with patients in an upright or semi-upright sitting position (pressure setting, +40 and −40 cmH2O; in-exsufflation times, 2–3 and 1–2 seconds, respectively). Patients underwent five cycles, with 20–30 second intervals to prevent hyperventilation. Peak cough flow without and with assistive maneuvers, was evaluated before, and 15 and 45 minutes after mechanical in-exsufflator application. RESULTS: Peak cough flow was 92.6 L/min at baseline, and 100.4 and 100.7 L/min at 15 and 45 minutes after mechanical in-exsufflator application, respectively. Assisted peak cough flow at baseline, 15 minutes, and 45 minutes after mechanical in-exsufflator application was 170.7, 179.3, and 184.1 L/min, respectively. While peak cough flow and assisted peak cough flow increased significantly at 15 minutes after mechanical in-exsufflator application compared with baseline (p=0.030 and p=0.016), no statistical difference was observed between 15 and 45 minutes. CONCLUSION: Increased peak cough flow after mechanical in-exsufflator application persists for at least 45 minutes.
Subject(s)
Humans , Cough , Hyperventilation , Neuromuscular Diseases , Pilot Projects , PneumoniaABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To report the surgical results of unilateral pediatric cataracts from uncertain causes in relatively older children and to identify factors related to better visual outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 39 patients who underwent surgery between the ages of 3 and 10 years for unilateral pediatric cataracts of no known cause. All patients underwent primary intraocular lens implantation and postoperative amblyopia treatment. A postoperative final visual acuity better than 20 / 30 was considered to be a good visual outcome. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 6.0 ± 1.8 years at the time of surgery. The mean preoperative visual acuity was 1.07 ± 0.71 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (range, 0.15 to 3.00), while the mean final postoperative visual acuity was 0.47 ± 0.54 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (range, 0.00 to 2.00). Of 39 patients, 18 (46.2%) achieved a good visual outcome. Only the preoperative visual acuity maintained a significant association with a good visual outcome according to our multivariate analysis (p = 0.040). A preoperative visual acuity of 20 / 100 or better was found to increase the chance of achieving a good visual outcome by 13.79-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.13 to 167.58). CONCLUSIONS: The visual outcome of unilateral pediatric cataract surgery for cataracts with no specific cause identified in patients after three years of age could be satisfactory, especially with a preoperative visual acuity of 20 / 100 or better.
Subject(s)
Child , Humans , Amblyopia , Cataract , Lens Implantation, Intraocular , Medical Records , Multivariate Analysis , Phacoemulsification , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Visual AcuityABSTRACT
PURPOSE@#We aimed to evaluate the prognostic values of radiography, F-18 FDG PET, and I-131 whole body scans in patients with lung-only metastasis from differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC).@*METHODS@#Between 1998 and 2013, we included 31 patients (F: 26, M: 5) with lung-only metastasis from DTC who had been treated with I-131 and underwent PET. Lung metastasis was categorized according to the size (macronodular ≥1.0 cm vs. micronodular <1.0 cm), FDG avidity (avid vs. non-avid), and I-131 avidity (avid vs. non-avid). Progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated for each patient.@*RESULTS@#Among 31 patients, seven (23%) had macronodular lung metastasis, 26 (84%) had FDG avid lung metastasis, and 16 (52%) had I-131 avid lung metastasis. During the median follow-up period of 9.4 y, median PFS was 6.1 y. Based on Kaplan-Meier analysis, macronodular lung metastasis (p = 0.017) and I-131 non-avid lung metastasis (p = 0.059) were significantly associated with worse outcomes, but FDG avid lung metastasis was not (p = 0.135). Patients with FDG non-avid lung metastasis did not experience disease progression during follow-up, while 11 of 26 patients (42%) experienced disease progression. Based on univariate analysis, the hazard ratio for a poor prognosis was 3.78 (p = 0.029) for macronodular lung metastasis and 3.29 (p = 0.079) for I-131 non-avid lung metastasis.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Macronodular and I-131 non-avid lung metastasis were associated with a poor prognosis in lung-only metastasis from DTC. Although FDG avid lung metastasis may be associated with a poor prognosis, a larger-scale study is needed.
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PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic values of radiography, F-18 FDG PET, and I-131 whole body scans in patients with lung-only metastasis from differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC).METHODS: Between 1998 and 2013, we included 31 patients (F: 26, M: 5) with lung-only metastasis from DTC who had been treated with I-131 and underwent PET. Lung metastasis was categorized according to the size (macronodular ≥1.0 cm vs. micronodular <1.0 cm), FDG avidity (avid vs. non-avid), and I-131 avidity (avid vs. non-avid). Progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated for each patient.RESULTS: Among 31 patients, seven (23%) had macronodular lung metastasis, 26 (84%) had FDG avid lung metastasis, and 16 (52%) had I-131 avid lung metastasis. During the median follow-up period of 9.4 y, median PFS was 6.1 y. Based on Kaplan-Meier analysis, macronodular lung metastasis (p = 0.017) and I-131 non-avid lung metastasis (p = 0.059) were significantly associated with worse outcomes, but FDG avid lung metastasis was not (p = 0.135). Patients with FDG non-avid lung metastasis did not experience disease progression during follow-up, while 11 of 26 patients (42%) experienced disease progression. Based on univariate analysis, the hazard ratio for a poor prognosis was 3.78 (p = 0.029) for macronodular lung metastasis and 3.29 (p = 0.079) for I-131 non-avid lung metastasis.CONCLUSIONS: Macronodular and I-131 non-avid lung metastasis were associated with a poor prognosis in lung-only metastasis from DTC. Although FDG avid lung metastasis may be associated with a poor prognosis, a larger-scale study is needed.
Subject(s)
Humans , Disease Progression , Disease-Free Survival , Follow-Up Studies , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Lung , Neoplasm Metastasis , Prognosis , Radiography , Thyroid Gland , Thyroid Neoplasms , Whole Body ImagingABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To report the latest long-term outcome of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to analyze the predictors of prognosis. METHODS: Subjects who were diagnosed with ALS between January 2005 and December 2009 at a single institute were followed up until death or up to December 2014. Data regarding age, sex, date of onset, date of diagnosis, presence of bulbar symptoms on onset, date of initiation of non-invasive ventilation (NIV), and the date of tracheostomy were collected. Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariate analyses of the risk of death were performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Among 212 suspicious subjects, definite ALS was diagnosed in 182 subjects. The survival rate at 3 and 5 years from onset was 61.5% and 40.1%, respectively, and the survival rate at 3 and 5 years post-diagnosis was 49.5% and 24.2%, respectively. Further, 134 patients (134/182, 73.6%) were initiated on NIV, and among them, 90 patients (90/182, 49.5%) underwent tracheostomy. Male gender and onset age of ≥65 years were independent predictors of adverse survival. CONCLUSION: The analysis of long term survival in ALS showed excellent outcomes considering the overall poor prognosis of this disease.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Age of Onset , Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis , Diagnosis , Multivariate Analysis , Noninvasive Ventilation , Prognosis , Proportional Hazards Models , Survival Rate , TracheostomyABSTRACT
De-identification of personal health information is essential in order not to require written patient informed consent. Previous de-identification methods were proposed using natural language processing technology in order to remove the identifiers in clinical narrative text, although these methods only focused on narrative text written in English. In this study, we propose a regular expression-based de-identification method used to address bilingual clinical records written in Korean and English. To develop and validate regular expression rules, we obtained training and validation datasets composed of 6,039 clinical notes of 20 types and 5,000 notes of 33 types, respectively. Fifteen regular expression rules were constructed using the development dataset and those rules achieved 99.87% precision and 96.25% recall for the validation dataset. Our de-identification method successfully removed the identifiers in diverse types of bilingual clinical narrative texts. This method will thus assist physicians to more easily perform retrospective research.
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Humans , Algorithms , Data Anonymization , Electronic Health Records , Health Records, Personal , Multilingualism , Natural Language Processing , Research DesignABSTRACT
No abstract available.
Subject(s)
Aged , Humans , Male , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Aortic Valve/microbiology , Cross Infection/diagnosis , Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Endocarditis, Bacterial/diagnosis , Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation , Klebsiella Infections/diagnosis , Klebsiella pneumoniae/drug effects , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Predictive Value of Tests , Sepsis/diagnosis , Treatment Outcome , beta-Lactamases/metabolismABSTRACT
We have noticed an inadvertent error in our article. In Figure 1, an abbreviation is misspelled.
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OBJECTIVES: The Korean government has enacted two laws, namely, the Personal Information Protection Act and the Bioethics and Safety Act to prevent the unauthorized use of medical information. To protect patients' privacy by complying with governmental regulations and improve the convenience of research, Asan Medical Center has been developing a de-identification system for biomedical research. METHODS: We reviewed Korean regulations to define the scope of the de-identification methods and well-known previous biomedical research platforms to extract the functionalities of the systems. Based on these review results, we implemented necessary programs based on the Asan Medical Center Information System framework which was built using the Microsoft. NET Framework and C#. RESULTS: The developed de-identification system comprises three main components: a de-identification tool, a search tool, and a chart review tool. The de-identification tool can substitute a randomly assigned research ID for a hospital patient ID, remove the identifiers in the structured format, and mask them in the unstructured format, i.e., texts. This tool achieved 98.14% precision and 97.39% recall for 6,520 clinical notes. The search tool can find the number of patients which satisfies given search criteria. The chart review tool can provide de-identified patient's clinical data for review purposes. CONCLUSIONS: We found that a clinical data warehouse was essential for successful implementation of the de-identification system, and this system should be tightly linked to an electronic Institutional Review Board system for easy operation of honest brokers. Additionally, we found that a secure cloud environment could be adopted to protect patients' privacy more thoroughly.
Subject(s)
Humans , Access to Information , Bioethics , Computer Security , Electronics , Electrons , Ethics Committees, Research , Ethics, Research , Information Systems , Jurisprudence , Masks , Privacy , Research Design , Social Control, Formal , Tertiary Care CentersABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To determine the factors affecting the outcome of silicone intubation for congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction. METHODS: A total of 233 eyes of 200 children that received silicone intubation were enrolled in a retrospective study. RESULTS: The overall success of silicone intubation was 193 of 233 eyes (82.8%). There was no significant difference in success rate between age groups. Tube retention time did not affect the success rates. Immediate tube dislocation as early as within 2 weeks did not lower the success rates (81.5%). Success rates were significantly lowered by persistent epiphora at the point of tube removal (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of silicone intubation is determined by symptomatic improvement, which is not affected by tube retention time. Unplanned early tube dislocation may not affect the outcome of silicone intubation unless symptoms are persistent, and sufficient tube retention time does not ensure the success if symptoms are persistent.