The Keio Journal of Medicine
Online ISSN : 1880-1293
Print ISSN : 0022-9717
ISSN-L : 0022-9717
Volume 58, Issue 3
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
REVIEWS
  • Paul S. Mueller
    2009 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 133-143
    Published: September 25, 2009
    Released on J-STAGE: October 15, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Professionalism is a core competency of physicians. In this article, the statements of professional societies (e.g., the Charter on Medical Professionalism), the expectations of patients and society regarding professionalism, and a framework for defining medical professionalism are described. The framework's foundation consists of clinical competence, communication skills, and a sound understanding of the ethical and legal aspects of medicine. Rising from this foundation are attributes of professionalism: accountability, altruism, excellence, and humanism. The capstone of the framework is professionalism, or the complete physician. Reasons for teaching professionalism to and assessing professionalism among medical students, physicians in training, and physicians in practice are also described. These reasons include patient expectations; the association between professionalism and improved clinical outcomes (and the association between unprofessional behavior and adverse outcomes); accreditation organization requirements; and observations that professionalism can be taught, learned, and assessed. In addition, methods for teaching professionalism are described (e.g., didactic lectures, discussion groups, simulation, and role-modeling). To ensure that medical students, physicians in training, and physicians in practice are competent in professionalism, they should be assessed for professionalism. Thus, approaches to assessing professionalism are also described (e.g., multiple tools and observers). Professionalism assessments can be used for formative and summative feedback, evaluation of professionalism education programs, and generating hypotheses for professionalism research. Finally, the rich history and culture of clinical excellence and professionalism and specific programs for teaching and assessing professionalism at Mayo Clinic are described throughout this article. Indeed, the Mayo Clinic experience validates professionalism as a core physician competency.
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  • Donald E. Greydanus, Daniel Shek
    2009 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 144-151
    Published: September 25, 2009
    Released on J-STAGE: October 15, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is a widespread yet often hidden problem in adolescents and young adults. Though most DSH can be classified as "non-suicidal self-cutting", some do go on to commit suicide. In this paper, deliberate self-harm is examined, including its prevalence, etiology, management, and future research directions using self-cutting and self-burning as examples. This article reviews recent literature to help understand what is known about self-cutting behavior and its potential relationship to suicide as well as provide direction for research. Research shows that different ecological factors at the individual, family, peer, and societal levels are related to deliberate self-harm. Although there is an association between some self-injurers and drug abuse (including alcohol abuse) as well as eating disorders, there are various subgroups of self-cutters and most are not at high risk for suicide. However, all acts of self-injury should be taken seriously by health care professionals and comprehensive therapy offered to any adolescent with a history of DSH. Future research directions on deliberate self-harm are also discussed.
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  • Carl H. Snyderman, Harshita Pant, Ricardo L. Carrau, Daniel Prevedello ...
    2009 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 152-160
    Published: September 25, 2009
    Released on J-STAGE: October 15, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The advent of endoscopic technologies and techniques has expanded the limits of conventional endoscopic sinus surgery. The expanded endonasal approach describes a series of surgical modules in the sagittal and coronal planes that allow surgical access to the entire ventral skull base. The sagittal plane extends from the frontal sinus to the second cervical vertebra. The coronal plane extends from the midline to the roof of the orbit, the floor of the middle cranial fossa, and the jugular foramen. Key principles of endonasal skull base surgery are choosing a surgical corridor that minimizes the need for neural and vascular manipulation, team surgery, use of the endoscope to enhance visualization, and bimanual tumor dissection under direct visualization. Particular challenges of the expanded endonasal approach are identification of anatomical structures using unfamiliar landmarks, hemostasis, and dural reconstruction. Over the last decade with more than 1000 completely endonasal skull base surgeries, we have demonstrated that endoscopic endonasal surgery of the skull base can be performed with minimal morbidity and mortality. The introduction of the septal mucosal flap for dural reconstruction has decreased the incidence of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leaks to less than 5%. Early data suggests that oncological outcomes for malignant sinonasal tumors with skull base involvement are comparable to conventional techniques. Proper training in endonasal surgical techniques is essential to prevent unnecessary morbidity and achieve good outcomes.
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  • Hidetsugu Saito, Tetsuya Masuda, Shinichiro Tada, Hirotoshi Ebinuma, Y ...
    2009 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 161-175
    Published: September 25, 2009
    Released on J-STAGE: October 15, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We have retrospectively investigated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (912 cases) treated in the Affiliated Hospitals of Keio University (the Keio Association for the Study of Liver Diseases: KASLD) and here we review the recent diagnosis and treatment of HCC. HCC is a major cause of death in Japan and a major etiology of this disease is chronic viral infection such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV). Screening of HCC by imaging studies and measurement of serum tumor markers successfully prolonged survival of the patients in Japan. The prognosis of this disease has been determined by both tumor factors and degree of liver function, and its staging is usually established with a recent system such as Japan Integrated Staging Score (JIS). The 5-year survival rate of JIS stage 0, 1, 2 and 3 were 68.3%, 51.9%, 25.8% and 16.6%, respectively in our cohort. Multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard models showed that age (>65), HCV infection, tumor number, TB (>1.0), AFP (>20) and PIVKA-II (>40) were significant factors affecting survival among the entire patients. Major treatment strategies are hepatic resection, radio frequency ablation and transarterial chemo-embolization, but alternative treatments such as radiation, chemotherapy, and their combination have been used to reduce tumor sizes resulting prolongation of the survival or maintenance of patients' quality of life, while liver transplantation has not been popular in Japan. However, the overall survival continues to decrease from year to year, and does not show a plateau phase in Kaplan-Mayer curve. These results suggest that the best way to improve survival can be achieved by prevention of the disease. Antiviral therapies have decreased the incidence of HCC, indicating that treatment for chronic hepatitis is the best way to prevent HCC development at present.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Takafumi Ohshiro, Tatsuo Nakajima, Hisao Ogata, Kazuo Kishi
    2009 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 176-184
    Published: September 25, 2009
    Released on J-STAGE: October 15, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Background: Mono-L-aspartyl chlorin e6 (Talaporfin sodium) is a novel photosensitizer, and is currently being used in photodynamic therapy for various malignant tumors in combination with irradiation with a 664 nm laser. An interesting characteristic of Talaporfin sodium is that the skin photosensitivity after injection of this agent disappears faster than any other existing photosensitizers. This study examined the vascular events that occurred postirradiation in the chicken comb as a capillary malformation model after photosensitization with Talaporfin sodium.
    Materials and Methods: A single intravenous bolus injections of Talaporfin sodium was administered to the chickens, and a 1 cm diameter area of the comb of each animal was irradiated with a 664 nm visible red laser. The gross changes in the chicken combs were recorded for 7-14 days after photodynamic therapy. For the histological examination, HE, PTAH and Azan stained sections were analyzed.
    Results: All treated chicken combs had blanched after photodynamic therapy. Microscopy demonstrated an absence of erythrocytes and the vessel lumina were obliterated, leaving the normal overlying epidermis completely intact. Concomitantly with selective destruction of the capillaries in the target area, moderate invasion of inflammatory cells and a slight increase in the stroma were observed.
    Conclusions: In the chicken comb model, photodynamic therapy with Talaporfin sodium effectively achieved selective destruction of the microvasculature while leaving the epidermis intact. Our results strongly suggest that photodynamic therapy with Talaporfin sodium could be a feasible method to treat dermal hypervascular lesions.
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CASE REPORT
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