RESUMO
Introduction: Mammography is a major tool for the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer globally. Poor funding and lack of good public health education for mammography in resource-limited countries limit access to mammographic services. In these settings, patients bear the cost of breast cancer screening from out-of-pocket expenses. The aim of this study was to interrogate the pattern of utilization of mammography by women of childbearing age, who attended Asokoro District Hospital (ADH) for Healthcare, with the view to increase uptake. Materials and Methods: This was a 4-year retrospective, cross-sectional study of 534 women who attended ADH from July 2015 to June 2019 for screening or diagnostic mammography. Data were extracted from completed questionnaire by women who had mammography during the period under review. The data were entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 27 by IBM for analysis. Results: The mean age of the women was 47.8 years ± 7.7 with a range of 30-82 years. Most of the women, 525 (94.9%), were referred for mammography by health workers; only nine (5.1%) had mammography on self-referral. In all, 71% of the women paid for their mammography from their pockets, whereas 28.1% made payments through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). A total of 100% of women who reported for mammography on self-referral paid for the services from their pockets. The association between the funding options and mode of referral was statistically significant, P = 0.049. Conclusion: This study showed that referral for mammography by health workers was responsible for not only most of the mammograms conducted but also all the women who utilized NHIS to pay for this service. Resources should therefore be directed towards creating awareness among health workers, especially with the present level of NHIS coverage in the population, in order to increase the uptake of screening mammography in the population.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This study analyzed the cosmetic and functional outcome of cases involving reconstruction of tooth-bearing portion of the lower jaw, using a polyglactin 910 suture for fixation. PATIENTS AND METHOD: This prospective intervention study documented the treatment outcome in 25 consecutive adult patients, who underwent immediate mandibular reconstruction following segmental resection of tooth-bearing portion of mandible. Cortico-cancellous bone graft was taken from the inner table of iliac bone, sparing the crest. Use of post-surgical inter-maxillary fixation was avoided. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients were recruited for the study. Seventeen were males and eight were females. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50 years, with a mean of 30.0 years. Average length of grafted bone was 9.8 cm. Following surgery, all 25 (100%) patients were judged to have satisfactory facial symmetry. One (4.0 %) had altered dental occlusion. Twenty-five (100%) had satisfactory bone union. All of the patients claimed to masticate satisfactorily. Assessment was carried out at the last post-operative follow-up visit for each patient who ranged between 22 and 83 months. CONCLUSION: Use of polyglactin 910 suture material for fixation in mandibular reconstruction following segmental resection of tooth-bearing portion has proven to be a cosmetic and functional success. It may serve as alternative for those among whom conventional treatment methods may be contraindicated. This method of bone fixation may serve as a reliable and much cheaper alternative in low-income countries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic study.
