Incidence, Presentation and Management of Bartholin’s Gland Cysts/Abscesses: A Four-Year Review in Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The Bartholin's gland cysts and abscesses are one of the most common vulva cyst or abscesses in gynaecological practice. Symptomatic cases give significant discomfort to sufferers and have a negative impact on their quality of life. Objective: To investigate the incidence, pattern of presentation and management of Barthholin's gland cysts and abscesses in the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA) Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a four-year retrospective study of cases of Bartholin's gland cysts and abscesses in FETHA. We studied all cases of Bartholin's gland cysts and abscesses that were managed at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abaka-liki from 1 st January 2012 to 31 st December 2015. Results: During the study period, there were 1015 gynaecological surgical cases of which 18 were for Bartholin's gland cysts or abscess giving an incidence of 1.78%. The mean age of the patients was 28.8 ± 5.6 years with 61% of the patients within the age range of 21 to 30 years. The commonest risk factor that was found for the occurrence of Bartholin's gland cyst or abscess was previous history of the disease in 14 (77.8%) followed by previous history of sexually transmitted diseases 8 (44.4%). Pain was the commonest presenting symptom in 14 (77.8%) of cases. The left vulva was the commonest site of disease as noted in 15 (83.3%) of patients. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the commonest isolates on swabs with 16 (88.9%) and 14 (77.8%) prevalence respectively. The disease presented commonly in form of abscess as observed in 10 (55.6%) of patients. All the patients had Marsupia-lization as the modality of treatment. Conclusion: Symptomatic Bartholin's gland cyst and abscess cause significant morbidity for the sufferers and decreased quality of life. Accurate diagnosis and treatment is advocated to prevent chronicity and complications. Although options of treatment abound, Marsupialization remains the mainstay of treatment in low resource setting like ours.