BACKGROUND The role of urgent colonoscopy in lower gastro-intestinal bleeding (LGIB) remains controversial. Over the last two decades, a number of studies have indicated that urgent colonoscopy may facilitate the identification and treatment of bleeding lesions; however, studies comparing this approach to elective colonoscopy for LGIB are limited. AIMS To determine the utility and assess the ...

BACKGROUND The relationship between hospital volumes and short-term patients' outcomes of colon cancer (CC) surgery is not well established in the literature. Moreover, evidence about short-term outcomes of urgent compared with elective CC procedures is scanty. The aims of this study are 1) to determine whether caseloads and other hospital characteristics are associated with short-term outcomes...

Abstract Background While obesity is associated with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, patients higher body mass index (BMI) may have better outcomes post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This “obesity paradox” controversial needs clarification. Purpose We aimed to investigate the relationship between BMI post-PCI in an Asian cohort. Methods A retrospective cohort study was perfo...

BACKGROUND Significant controversy remains over how urgently coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) should be scheduled, particularly for patients with stenosis of the left main coronary artery. Our main objective was to evaluate the safety of waiting for CABG among patients with left main coronary artery disease using a standardized triage system. METHODS We identified 561 consecutive p...

BACKGROUND The balance of the risks and the benefits of cardiac surgery in the elderly remains a major concern. We evaluated the early and mid-term clinical results of patients aged over 75 years who underwent major cardiovascular surgery. METHODS Two hundred and fifty-one consecutive patients, who underwent cardiac surgery at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital between July 2003 and J...

BACKGROUND Elective intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) support may reduce acute complications occurring during percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in patients with severe depression of the left ventricular ejection fraction (EF < or = 30%). METHODS Since February 1998, 133 consecutive patients with EF < or =30% underwent elective PCI in our institution; 61 had elective preprocedural IABP ...

In this paper, we study the construction of a cyclic appointment schedule in an outpatient department. particular, determine capacity distribution between elective and urgent patients scheduling time slots reserved for these such that operational waiting times are minimised. The proposed solution methodology devises Pareto set schedules based on with different allocations patients. An approxima...

In 78 consecutive patients with unstable angina, we performed coronary angiography randomized to either the first day of presentation or later during the hospital admission to assess the frequency of intracoronary thrombus and complex coronary morphology relative to the time of symptomatic presentation and the impact of these angiographic features on outcome. Early angiography (17±+6 hours) was...

In 78 consecutive patients with unstable angina, we performed coronary angiography randomized to either the first day of presentation or later during the hospital admission to assess the frequency of intracoronary thrombus and complex coronary morphology relative to the time of symptomatic presentation and the impact of these angiographic features on outcome. Early angiography (17 +/- 6 hours) ...