Sang Ah Lee

Purpose: Optimal perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis in kidney transplantation remains undefined despite routine antibiotic administration to prevent infections. In this retrospective observational cohort study with historical comparison, we compared the clinical efficacy of 6 days of ampicillin/sulbactam vs. a single dose of cefazolin. Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed 2322 kidney transplantation recipients at a single center, with the evaluation period spanning from 2015 through 2021. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the perioperative antibiotic regimen received: 971 patients received ampicillin/sulbactam, and 1351 received cefazolin. This study focused on evaluating the impact of these regimens on postoperative infection incidence and the 6-month acute rejection (AR) rates. Results: The cefazolin group exhibited a tendency toward higher urinary tract infection rates within 1 month after transplantation (3.4% vs. 2.2%, p= = 0.078). There were no significant differences in surgical site infections between the groups. The 6-month AR rates were significantly lower in the cefazolin group than in the ampicillin/sulbactam group (5.1% vs. 7.9%, p= = 0.009). Cefazolin was also confirmed to be significantly associated with reduced 6-month AR rates in the multivariable logistic regression analysis (odds ratio 0.63, 95% confidence interval [0.45-0.89], p= = 0.009). Conclusion: In this study, we observed that a single dose of cefazolin as perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis may lead to higher rates of postoperative urinary tract infections, but it could potentially lower the incidence of acute rejection within six months.

Lee SA, et al. Ann Surg Treat Res. 2025 Oct;109(4):235-243. https://doi.org/10.4174/astr.2025.109.4.235

Joon-Young Kim, Sang Ah Lee, Jun Gyo Gwon, Youngjin Han, Yong-Pil Cho, and Tae-Won Kwon. Vasc Specialist Int 2024;40:. https://doi.org/10.5758/vsi.230108

Kim H, et al. Ann Surg Treat Res. 2023 Jul;105(1):37-46. https://doi.org/10.4174/astr.2023.105.1.37

Large-scale population studies of the incidence of and mortality from abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are needed to develop healthcare policies and priorities. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of AAA and the all-cause mortality from it among Koreans aged ≥50 years from 2009 to 2018 using data from the Korean National Health Insurance System Database. The crude and standardized incidence and all-cause mortality of the disease among patients with unruptured AAA were calculated. A total of 73,933 AAA patients were identified. The overall incidence of AAA in adults ≥50 years during the study period was 37.5 per 100,000 population (49.7 per 100,000 in men and 26.8 per 100,000 in women), with an increase from 32.33 per 100,000 persons in 2009 to 46.85 per 100,000 in 2018. The crude all-cause mortality rate of patients with untreated AAA was 21.26/100 person-years in 2009 and 8.87/100 person-years in 2018, with decreasing trends observed both in men and women. This nationwide study showed that the incidence of AAA in Koreans aged ≥50 years in 2018 was 63.40 per 100,000 in men and 32.07 per 100,000 in women. The overall rates were 0.06% and 0.03%, respectively, with an increasing trend. Mortality has decreased in both treated and untreated patients. The observed increase in incidence suggests a rising burden of AAA in the Korean population, particularly among men. The decreasing mortality rates may indicate improvements in the management and treatment of AAA over the study period.

Kim H, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2023 Sep;38(39):e321. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2023.38.e321

Lee SA, et al. Ann Surg Treat Res. 2023 Jun;104(6):339-347. https://doi.org/10.4174/astr.2023.104.6.339

To date, the relationship between air pollutants and venous thromboembolism (VTE) has not been well established. Our aim is to investigate the association between ambient air pollutants and the incidence of VTE using the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) database. From 2003 to 2015, 338,616 subjects from the general population not previously diagnosed with VTE were included. The long-term average concentration of air pollutants before diagnosis for each subject was calculated. During the study period, there were 3196 incident cases of VTE. After adjusting for age, gender, economic status, body mass index, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, comorbid diseases, and meteorological variables, the risk of VTE was observed to increase significantly with the long-term average concentration of particulate matter < 10 μm in diameter: PM₁₀ (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.064 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.053–1.074) for 1 μg/m³), SO₂ (HR = 1.118 (95% CI 1.079–1.158) 1 ppb), and O₃ (HR = 1.039 (95% CI 1.026–1.053) for 1 ppb), respectively. A difference between the date of the health screening and the date of diagnosis of the disease was observed. Long-term exposure to air pollutants including PM₁₀, SO₂, and O₃ may be an independent risk factor for the development of VTE.