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Background: Permanent cardiac pacing is not often done in children, and when done is usually accomplished through epicardial pacing. We reviewed a 12-year experience with the implantation of epicardial pacemakers by our clinical group., Methods: Fifty-three patients who underwent their first implantation of an epicardial pacemaker before the age of 18 years and between 1997 and 2009 were included in our study. The mean age of the patients at the time of first pacemaker implantation was 5.7±4.8 years. Indications for pacemaker implantation included postoperative or congenital atrioventricular block and sinus node dysfunction. The patients underwent 105 operations for the replacement of pacemaker pulse generators and 75 operations for the replacement of pacemaker leads. The most commonly used generator mode was the rate-responsive accelerometer-based (DDDR) mode, which was used in 40.9% of the patients. We used more non-steroid-eluting leads (70.1%) than steroid-eluting leads (29.1%)., Results: The overall duration of follow-up in the study was 8.0±4.5 years (range, 2.1 months to approximately 17.0 years). Freedom from the need for generator replacement was 98.0%, 60.7%, and 11.1% at 1, 5, and 8 years, respectively. A tendency toward early generator exhaustion was observed among younger patients (p=0.058). The generator mode used for pacing did not significantly affect generator longevity. Freedom from the need for lead replacement was 98.3%, 83.8%, and 63.6% at 1, 5, and 10 years, respectively. The mean longevity of the leads used in the study was 10.8±0.8 years. Neither patient age at the time of lead implantation nor type of lead significantly affected lead longevity., Conclusions: Lead longevity was sufficiently long and did not vary significantly according to type of lead. Generator longevity was not affected by lead type, generator mode, or patient age at the time of pacemaker implantation., (Copyright © 2012 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The prevalence of infection and the identification of anisakid larvae in chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) from the Namdae River, the east coast of Korea, were investigated. In total, 8,358 larvae were collected from 120 fish samples (male = 58 fish, female = 62 fish) in 2008. Fish samples were collected during October and November 2008. All the chum salmon samples (120/120, 100%) caught were infected with anisakid larvae with a high intensity (69.65 ± 48.58 larvae/host). They were mostly found in muscles (98.00%). Based on the morphological and the molecular analysis of PCR-RFLP and sequencing of mitochondrial DNA cox2 gene markers, these nematodes were identified as Anisakis simplex (sensu stricto) third-stage larvae. This is the first report on the molecular identification of anisakid worms from salmonid fishes in Korea. The high occurrence of anisakid worms in chum salmon may pose considerable food safety problems if they were consumed as raw or undercooked, although their commercial value is relatively lower than other salmonid species.