ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Radiotherapy is one of the important treatment options for metastatic spinal tumors but is not the definite intervention in all cases, as there are patients who still require surgical treatment because of severe pain or neurologic events after this treatment. We evaluated the perioperative effects of preoperative radiotherapy in these cases as a future guide for surgeons on critical considerations in this period. METHODS: We included 328 patients in this study who had undergone decompression and fusion surgery for metastatic spinal tumors. Patients who underwent surgery with preoperative radiotherapy were designated as the radiotherapy group (group RT, n = 81), and cases of surgery without preoperative radiotherapy were assigned to the non-radiotherapy group (group nRT, n = 247). We compared the demographic, intraoperative, and postoperative factors between these 2 groups. RESULTS: In terms of intraoperative factors, statistically significant differences were evident in operation time, estimated blood loss, and transfusion (RT vs. nRT: 188.1 ± 80.7 minutes vs. 231.2 ± 106.1 minutes, 607.2 ± 532.7 mL vs. 830.1 ± 1324.7 mL, and 30.9% vs. 43.3%, P < 0.001, P < 0.031, and P < 0.048, respectively). With regard to postoperative factors, the incidence of infection, wound problems, and local recurrence were statistically higher in group RT (RT vs. nRT: 6.2% vs. 0.8%, 12.3% vs. 0.8%, 23.4% vs. 13.7%, P = 0.004, P < 0.001, and P = 0.038, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative radiotherapy has the intraoperative advantages of reducing bleeding and shortening the operating time, but postoperative caution is needed because of the possibility of infection, wound problems, and local recurrence increases.
Subject(s)
Spinal Neoplasms , Humans , Female , Male , Middle Aged , Spinal Neoplasms/secondary , Spinal Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Spinal Neoplasms/surgery , Aged , Adult , Preoperative Care/methods , Spinal Fusion/methods , Postoperative Complications/epidemiology , Decompression, Surgical/methods , Retrospective Studies , Treatment Outcome , Blood Loss, Surgical , Operative Time , Neoplasm Recurrence, LocalABSTRACT
In this paper, growth behavior of high density Al2O3 which was prepared by using cyclic chemical vapor deposition (C-CVD) system has been systematically investigated. Tri-Methyl-Aluminum (TMA) and oxygen (02) plasma was used as source precursor and reactant, respectively. Unlike the conventional ALD system that source precursor and reactant was injected alternatively that was separated by inert gas purge step, TMA and 02 was mixed and co-fed into the process chamber simultaneously, followed by purge step. To obtain high density and defects-free Al2O3 layer, source precursor feeding time and the number of deposition cycles dependence on the thickness of C-CVD grown Al2O3 layer were investigated. We found that thickness of Al2O3 layer was increased almost linearly as the number of cycles increased which are typical characteristics of CVD. On the other hand, self-limiting phenomenon was observed in thickness as source feeding time increased which showed saturation of the thickness as source feeding time further increased. Using the optimized C-CVD process conditions, density of 3.298 g/cm3 was obtained in 100 nm thick Al2O3 layer whereas that of ALD Al2O3 was 3.192 g/cm3. The C-CVD grown Al2O3 layer effectively prevents water vapor from diffusing into active layer of organic light emitting diodes, which shows C-CVD grown Al2O3 layer can be applied to water vapor permeation barrier layer in organic light emitting diodes.
ABSTRACT
Inorganic/organic hybrid thin film encapsulation layers consist of a thin Al2O3 layer together with polymer material. We have investigated optical properties of thin film encapsulation layers for top-emission flexible organic light-emitting diodes. The transmittance of hybrid thin film encapsulation layers and the electroluminescent spectrum of organic light-emitting diodes that were passivated by hybrid organic/inorganic thin film encapsulation layers were also examined as a function of the thickness of inorganic Al203 and monomer layers. The number of interference peaks, their intensity, and their positions in the visible range can be controlled by varying the thickness of inorganic Al2O3 layer. On the other hand, changing the thickness of monomer layer had a negligible effect on the optical properties. We also verified that there is a trade-off between transparency in the visible range and the permeation of water vapor in hybrid thin film encapsulation layers. As the number of dyads decreased, optical transparency improved while the water vapor permeation barrier was degraded. Our study suggests that, in top-emission organic light-emitting diodes, the thickness of each thin film encapsulation layer, in particular that of the inorganic layer, and the number of dyads should be controlled for highly efficient top-emission flexible organic light-emitting diodes.