Cerebral malaria was grossly overdiagnosed, resulting in unnecessary treatment and insufficient investigation of other possible diagnoses, which could lead to higher mortality. Extension of this misperception to the assessment of cause of death in community surveys may lead to an overestimation of the impact of malaria in adults.
The University of Cape Town Karl Storz Head and Neck Surgery Fellowship is the only head and neck surgery fellowship in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article briefly describes this fellowship and outlines the experience and ongoing collaborative efforts of members of the American Academy of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery with graduates of this program who are now building head and neck surgery programs in East Africa. This educational collaboration avoids many common pitfalls associated with short-term humanitarian outreach and represents a successful model for international collaborative educational efforts with head and neck surgeons in developing countries in Africa.
Background
Epistaxis is the commonest ear, nose and throat emergency. It’s mostly self-limited but it may be severe such that medical attention is sought and in such cases it may be life threatening. There is paucity of data on the prevalence and management options for epistaxis in Tanzania and at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI), no any published study has unveiled it despite being the commonly encountered emergency in our department. The aim of this study was thus to determine the prevalence, aetiology and treatment modalities of epistaxis among patients receiving otorhinolaryngology services at MNH and MOI.
Materials and Methods
A cross-sectional, hospital based study was done to 427 patients at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI). Data was collected using structured questionnaires from June to December 2015 and it was then analyzed using SPSS program.
Results
A total of 427 patients aged 1-82 years were recruited with majority of the patients being females (54.6%). The mean age at diagnosis was found to be 27±23 years.The prevalence of epistaxis was found to be lower among patients below 20 years (12.5%) of age and higher among patients over the age of 40years (34.9%). Prevalence of epistaxis was found to be higher among males (29.9%) compared to females (18 %). Majority of patients had anterior epistaxis (73%) whereas the remaining percentage was constituted by those with posterior epistaxis.Posterior epistaxis was more common among patients aged 21-40 years (40.7%) compared to patients aged 0-20 years (20%). 75% of the patients had epistaxis due to local etiologies while 25% was due systemic causes. Majority of patients with epistaxis had history of trauma (25%). Other reported aetiologies were malignancy of nasal and post-nasal space (22%) and hypertension (15%). Anterior nasal packing was the most commonly used method in management of patients with epistaxis compared to conventional posterior nasal packs. Fewer number of patients required surgery as the treatment modality where 3% of the patients undergone electro cauterization and only 1% required external carotid artery ligation.
Conclusion
Epistaxis is quite prevalent at MNH and MOI with males being more affected than females. Trauma resulting from road traffic crashes remain the common etiological factor for epistaxis in our setting is the leading cause of epistaxis among the patients studied. Efforts directed at reduction in the incidence of road traffic crashes will reduce the prevalence of epistaxis in our hospital settings.
Introduction: Chronic-rhino sinusitis is an inflammatory disorder of the Para nasal sinuses and linings of the nasal passages that lasts for 12 weeks or longer. Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) is a minimally invasive technique used to restore sinus ventilation and normal function hence it is the mainstay surgical treatment for chronic-rhino sinusitis. This disease affects the quality of life of patients but it has been reported that, FESS provides significant improvement on the QOL of patients. This study aim to assess whether Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery provides a better QOL in patients with CRS with or without polyposis in a tertiary Hospital, Tanzania. Also, it aims to determine the predictive factors influencing the QOL of these patients. Objective: To assess the quality of life of patients with chronic rhino-sinusitis with or without polyposis before and after FESS. Methodology: This is a hospital based before and after study where by patients diagnosed with CRS with or without polyposis planned for FESS were recruited. The SNOT-22 test was used to evaluate QOL. Data was collected before the surgery and 1 month after the surgery and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 software. Result: 48 patients were enrolled in this study, 19 (39.6%) were male and 29 (60.4%) were female. The age range was 5-79 years with the mean age of 35 years. There was a statistically significant reduction between the preoperative and postoperative score attained on SNOT-22. (Z =-6.032, p = 0.000) The mean score of the preoperative score was 40.81 and the mean score of the postoperative score was 5.38. In this study there were 6 patients who had a history (past or present) of smoking, 6 patients who had Asthma and 11 patients with a previous history of FESS. Only a history of prior sinus surgery predicted poor quality of life after FESS. Conclusion: Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery is associated with increase in the quality of life of patients with CRS.
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