The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of colonic mucosal lesions by colonoscopy and for assessment of clinical features in patients with acute diarrhea.

From March 2000 to August 2001, one hundred and ten patients with watery or bloody diarrhea lasting less than 14 days. The colonoscopic finding was assessed to extent of lesion(rectum, left, right and total colon) and severity of inflammation(mild ; erythema and edema, moderate ; exudates and blood coagula, severe ; hemorrhage and ulcer).

Male was 60(54.5%) and median age was 43 years(range ; 15-84 years). The day of colonoscopy from symptom onset was 5 days(range 1-14 days). The causative food was flesh and meat, sea food and fish, and vegetable in order. Eight patient have history of travel including oversea. Pancolitis was the most common finding(46/110, 41.8%) and the normal colonoscopic finding was noted in eighteen cases(16.4%). The mild inflammation was 40(43.5%), moderate was 26(28.3%) and severe was 26(28.3%). The severity of inflammation was significantly correlated to the extent of lesion(p<0.05, r=0,655).

The colonoscopy in acute infectious colitis was a useful to evaluate the extent of lesion and the severity of disease.

We assessed the quality of life in two different types of urinary diversion ; ileal conduit and orthotopic ileal neobladder through well-validated questionnaire in patients with invasive bladder cancer.

From February 1992 to February 2000, we used a questionnaire consisted of questions about occupational activity, travel, sexual activity, relationship with partner, global satisfactions, etc. in ileal conduit group and orthotopic ileal neobladder group. This questionnaire was scored according to distress from 1 point to 4 point(1 point-no problem, 2 point-a little, 3 point-much, 4 point-very much).

Numbers of patients in ileal conduit group and orthotopic neobladder group were 10 and 6, respectively. Mean age and follow-up period in each group was 72+21 years old, 32+31 month in ileal conduit group, and 55+10 years old. 18+12 months in orthotopic neobladder group. Quality of life in each group showed differences in keeping their jobs, having relationships with others, satisfaction rates about the type of diversion which they have, and overall satisfaction rates.

Even through our data is small in number and relatively short-term in follow-up duration, there are meaningful differences in quality of life and its overall satisfaction rate between ileal conduit group and orthetopic neobladder group. We suggest that it is recommendable to consider not only the surgical outcome but also patients' postoperative quality of life when deciding the type of urinary diversion in advanced bladder cancer patients.

We retrospectively reviewed the cases of transurethral prostatectomy benign prostatic hyperplasia. We defined the morbidity, hospitalization and urethral catheter time, complication and operator's skilled experience and compared to transurethral prostatectomy in the historical series.

A retrospective chart review of 720 consecutive patients who underwent tranasurethral prostatectomy between 1990 and 1999 at our institution for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia was performed. Perioperative and late postoperative morbidity and their risk factors, hospitalization and urethral catheter time, operator's skilled experience were analyzed. The objective cases were divided by operator's experience into 5 groups, and compared in each group.

Patients were identified with an average of 66 years(range 45 to 88). Significant co-morbidity(2 or more co-morbid disease processes) was identified preoperatively in 22.1% of the patients. The most common indication for transurethral prostatectomy was prostatism only(63%). Average weight of resected tissue was 18.6gm. There was no perioperative patient mortality. Blood transfusion rate was 6.9%. The rates of early and late postoperative complications were 13.7% and 6.2%. Total average hospital stay was 5.5 days and 5.3 days from 1995 through 1999. Average preoperative symptom score was 23.8(range 10 to 35) and postoperative symptom score was 9.5(range 3 to 30) with an average follow up of 42 months(range 6 to 44 months).

In the 1990s complications of transurethral prostatectomy were relatively lower than rates in historical series. The average hospital stay and urethral catheter time have steadily decreased during the last 10 years. Transurethral resection of prostate could provide relief of lower urinary tract symptoms with high safety rate and low complication rate. Our study suggest that technique of trnasurthral resection is improving step by step by accumulating experience of operation and stabilized skillful technique will be achieved after experience of more than 150 cases.