Pneumatic reduction of intussusception is a cost-effective and rapid method of management of intussusception. It however has limitations like high reported rate of bowel perforation and limited ability to identify lead points. The benefits however seem to outweigh these challenges, such as fluoroscopic-guided pneumatic reduction has a very high success rate. Fluoroscopic guided pneumatic reduction should be considered as one of the primary modes of reduction in Ghana and other neighbouring countries that are yet to practice it.
SUMMARYBackground: Cardiothoracic ratio is a simple and cheap tool in the estimation of heart size. It is a useful index of cardiac size evaluation, and a value of 50% is generally considered to indicate the upper limit of normal. Study Objective: This study is to ascertain the normal mean value in cardiothoracic ratio of Ghanaians using chest radiography to serve as baseline for screening for cardiomegaly. Methodology: Standard postero-anterior radiographs of the -clients/patients were used in the study. The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) was obtained by dividing the transverse cardiac diameter [sum of the horizontal distances from the right and left lateral-most margins of the heart to the midline (spinous processes of the vertebral bodies)] by the maximum internal thoracic diameter. Systematic sampling with appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to obtain a sample size of 1989. Results: The mean transverse cardiac diameter and cardiothoracic ratio increased with age. The transverse thoracic diameter increased with age until the sixth decade when it reduced with age. The mean CTR increased gradually with age with females having greater values than males. The mean CTR of the study population were 0.459, 0.467 and 0.452 for the general population, females and males respectively. Conclusion: This study has been able to establish 0.459 as the mean CTR values for Ghanaians. It has also shown the relationship between age and clients /patient's cardiothoracic ratio which compares favourably with findings of a similar study in Nigeria, a neighbouring country in the West African sub region with similar ethnic and social structure.
Background: Neurological limb deficit due to non-traumatic myelopathy is a disabling and distressing neurological condition. In recent time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has proven to be the ultimate imaging modality for evaluating pathologies of the spinal cord.Objective: To describe the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) features of patients with Non-Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury evaluated at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Accra, Ghana. Results: Out of a total of 141 MRI’s evaluated 60.3% were males and 39.7% female. The majority of the respondents 85.1% had paraparesis/paraplegia,13.5% had quadriparesis/quadriplegia, 1.4% had weakness in one upper limb and both lower limbs. The commonest MRI features of NTSCI recorded was due to degenerative disease of the spine 75.9%, spinal metastases 5.7%, Pott's/pyogenic spondylitis 3.5%, demyelinating disease 2.8% and primary spinal tumours 2.8%.Conclusion: The commonest MRI findings in the study population were due to degenerative disease of the spine, followed by spinal metastases and infective spondylitis. Funding: Not declaredKeywords: paraparesis, paraplegia, tetraparesis, tetraplegia, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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