Range of urologic surgical procedures in two district tertiary care hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: To assist the surgical workload and the spectrum of urological procedures performed by a single urologist in two tertiary referral hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria, between February 2007 and December 2008. Patients and methods: Data on patient demographics and urologic procedures performed were extracted from the clinical not and operating room registers of Asokoro District General Hospital and Wuse General Hospital, two tertiary referral health facilities in Abuja. Results: In total, 858 urologic surgical procedures were performed, of which 123 (14.3%) were emergency and 735 (85.7%) elective. Of the 858 patients, 852 (99.3%) were males and 6 (0.7%) were females, 657 (77.2%) were adults and 195 (23%) were children. The procedures were therapeutic in 736 (85.8%) and diagnostic in 122 patients (14.2%). Minimally invasive procedures were performed in only 30 (3.5%) of cases. The five most common procedures performed, accounting for 53.7% of the total, were difficult male urethral catheterization (186), herniorrhaphy (83), varicocoelectomy (68), exploration for acute scrotum (64) and transrectal prostate biopsy (60). Conclusion: A modest number of 858 urological procedures were performed in the period under review in two health facilities where specialist urologic surgery care had just been introduced. An unexplained observation was that female patients constituted a minute proportion (<1%) of the patients treated. The small proportion of minimally invasive procedures (3.5%) was due to the lack of instruments and consumables available for uroendoscopic surgery.