Branchial cleft anomalies are the second most common head and neck congenital lesions seen in children. Amongst the branchial cleft malformations, second cleft lesions account for 95 % of the branchial anomalies. This article analyzes all the cases of second branchial cleft anomalies operated on at Seoul National University Hospital from September 1995 to February 2011. We analyzed sex, age, symptom and sign, accompanied anomaly, diagnosis, treatment, pathologic report and outcome via retrospective review of medical records. In this series, we had 61 patients (27 female and 34 male). The mean age at the time of operation was 38 months. 31 lesions were on the right, 20 were on the left and 10 were bilateral. The most frequent chief complaints at presentation were non-tender mass and cervical opening without any discharge. According to anatomic type, 29 patients had branchial cleft sinuses, 14 had cysts, 14 had fistulas and 4 had skin tags. Complete excision was attempted if possible and antibiotics challenged when infection was suspected. Complete excision was achieved in 96.7 % of cases. Incision and drainage was done in 2 cases due to severe inflammation, and both recurred. Postoperative complications included wound infection in 2 cases. Microscopic examonation revealed squamous epithelium in 90.2 % and squamous metaplasia in one case in the branchial cleft cyst wall. In summary, second branchial anomaly is found more frequently on right side of neck. Fistulas are diagnosed earlier than cystic forms. Most cases could be diagnosed by physical examination. The definitive treatment is complete excision and sufficient antibiotics coverage for cases with inflammation. After drainage of infected lesions, follow up excision after 1 year might be beneficial for preventing recurrence.

Congenital diaphragmatic disease is one of the common major congenital anomalies, and its mortality remained still high despite recent medical advances. The aim of this study is to examine the clinical characteristics of congenital diaphragmatic diseases. A total of 39 patients with congenital diaphragmatic disease that underwent surgery from January, 1997 to December, 2009 at Pusan National University Hospital were included in this study. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed. The male to female ratio was 30:9. Six out of 39 cases died (NS) before surgery, 17 patients had Bochdalek's hernia (BH), 11 patients hiatus hernia (HH), 4 diaphragmatic eventration (DE), and 1 Morgagni hernia (MH). There were no differences in mean birth weight and mean gestational age. NS (83.3%). BH (35.3%) was diagnosed more frequently than other diseases in the prenatal period. Three patients (17.6%) of BH expired due to pulmonary hypoplasia and 1 patient had co-existing congenital heart disease. BH was diagnosed more frequently in the prenatal stage and had a higher motality rate than other conditions. Therefore, BH needs to be concentrated more than other anomalies.

Tapering enteroplasty was first described by Thomas in 1969 as one method of intestinal anastomosis. The advantages of tapering enteroplasty in the intestinal atresia are: First, it makes end-to-end anastomosis possible between the atretic bowel ends with considerable differences in diameters. Second, it promotes the recover of the postoperative bowel function. Third, it prevents the possibility of the short bowel syndrome by eliminating the need of resecting the dilated bowel. A total of 22 patients with intestinal atresia who underwent tapering enteroplasty from January 1988 to December 2005 at our institute were reviewed. In 3 of 22 cases, tapering enteroplasty was the 2^nd operation after an initial end-to-oblique anastomosis. We reviewed the following items: age, sex, type and location of intestinal atresia, initial feeding and total enteral feeding start day, the length of hospital stay and complications. The average age of the patients was 7 days. Male to female ratio was 1 to 1.2 (10 cases: 12 cases). We performed the tapering enteroplasty on all types and locations of the intestinal atresia from the duodenum to the colon: type I (n=3), type II (n=4), type IIIA (n=7), type IIIB (n=5), type IIIB and IV (n=1), type IV (n=1) and type C (duodenum) and type IIIB and IV (jejunum). On the average, the oral feeds were started on the postoperative 8.8^th day, and full caloric intake via the enteric route was achieved on postoperative 13.3^th day. The average length of hospital stay was 19.6 days. There were 1 case (4.5 %) of anastomotic complication and 2 cases (9 %) of adhesive ileus among 22 patients. The tapering enteroplasty on all types of intestinal atresia is a usefull operative method when there are considerable diameter differences between the atretic bowel ends.