Associated factors of mortality and morbidity in emergency and elective abdominal surgery: a two-year prospective cohort study at lacor hospital, Uganda.

BACKGROUND: The mortality rate associated with open abdominal surgery is a significant concern for patients and healthcare providers. This is particularly worrisome in Africa due to scarce workforce resources and poor early warning systems for detecting physiological deterioration in patients who develop complications. METHODS: This prospective cohort study aimed to follow patients who underwent emergency or elective abdominal surgery at Lacor Hospital in Uganda. The participants were patients who underwent abdominal surgery at the hospital between April 27th, 2019 and July 07th, 2021. Trained research staff collected data using standardized forms, which included demographic information (age, gender, telephone contact, and location), surgical indications, surgical procedures, preoperative health status, postoperative morbidity and mortality, and length of hospital stay. RESULTS: The present study involved 124 patients, mostly male, with an average age of 35 years, who presented with abdominal pain and varying underlying comorbidities. Elective cases constituted 60.2% of the total. The common reasons for emergency and elective surgery were gastroduodenal perforation and cholelithiasis respectively. The complication rate was 17.7%, with surgical site infections being the most frequent. The mortality rate was 7.3%, and several factors such as preoperative hypotension, deranged renal function, postoperative use of vasopressors, and postoperative assisted ventilation were associated with it. Elective and emergency-operated patients showed no significant difference in survival (P-value = 0.41) or length of hospital stay (P-value = 0.17). However, there was a significant difference in morbidity (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Cholelithiasis and gastroduodenal perforation were key surgical indications, with factors like postoperative ventilation and adrenaline infusion linked to mortality. Emergency surgeries had higher complication rates, particularly surgical site infections, despite similar hospital stay and mortality rates compared to elective surgeries.

Incidental cholecystocolonic fistula in obstructive jaundice.

Cholecystocolonic fistula is a rare condition often diagnosed intraoperatively, requiring an adequate set of knowledge and skills to allow safe intraoperative change of prior planned surgery and alleviate significant morbidity.

Neonatal tetanus in St. Mary's Hospital Lacor: A case report.

Umbilical stump sepsis in a nonpassively immunized neonate poses a high risk to neonatal tetanus. Management of neonatal tetanus is still a great challenge in resource-limited settings where some health facilities lack tetanus toxoid containing vaccines, ventilator support, and inaccessibility of tetanus immunoglobulin.

Prevalence of HIV-associated esophageal candidiasis in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal candidiasis (OC) is a common AIDS-defining opportunistic infection. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces the occurrence of OC and other opportunistic infections among persons living with HIV (PLHIV). We sought to determine and compare the prevalence of OC in the ART and pre-ART era among PLHIV in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the African Journals Online databases to select studies in English and French reporting the prevalence of HIV-associated OC in SSA from January 1980 to June 2020. Reviews, single-case reports, and case series reporting < 10 patients were excluded. A random-effect cumulative meta-analysis was performed using STATA 16.0, and trend analysis performed using GraphPad Prism 8.0. RESULTS: Thirteen eligible studies from 9 SSA countries including a total of 113,272 patients were qualitatively synthesized, and 9 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Overall pooled prevalence of HIV-associated OC was 12% (95% confidence interval (CI): 8 to 15%, I 2 = 98.61%, p <. 001). The prevalence was higher in the pre-ART era compared to the ART era, but not to statistical significance (34.1% vs. 8.7%, p = 0.095). In those diagnosed by endoscopy, the prevalence was higher compared to patients diagnosed by non-endoscopic approaches, but not to statistical significance (35.1% vs. 8.4%, p = .071). The prevalence of OC significantly decreased over the study period (24 to 16%, p < .025). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of OC among PLHIV in the ART era in SSA is decreasing. However, OC remains a common problem. Active endoscopic surveillance of symptomatic patients and further empirical studies into the microbiology, optimal antifungal treatment, and impact of OC on quality of life of PLHIV in SSA are recommended.

Prostate hyperplasia in St Mary's Hospital Lacor: utility of prostate specific antigen in screening for prostate malignancy.

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer is the second commonest cancer in men worldwide. At present, every patient with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in St. Mary's Hospital Lacor is undergoing prostate biopsy regardless of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) level. We sought to determine the association between PSA and malignant prostate histology. METHODS: This was a retrospective study. Data on age, PSA, prostate volume and prostate histology reported between Jan 2012 and Dec 2019 were retrieved from St. Mary's Hospital Lacor archive and analyzed using STATA SE/13.0. RESULTS: Records of 97 patients with LUTS was analyzed. The median (range) age of the patients was 71 (43-100) years. Median (range) of prostate volume was 91.8 (8.0-360.0) cc. Overall, PSA ranged from 0.21 to 399.2 ng/ml. Prostate histology showed 3.1% acinar adenocarcinoma, 24.7% adenocarcinoma and 72.2% benign prostatic hyperplasia. The median PSA amongst patients with malignant and non-malignant prostates were 15.8 ng/ml and 6.07 ng/ml respectively. Serum PSA level was significantly higher in patients with malignant prostate histology (Difference of mean= 9.7; p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with LUTS and PSA levels of 15ng/ml or more were more likely to have malignant prostate histology.

Thirty-day postoperative outcome of patients with non-traumatic gastroduodenal perforations in southwestern Uganda.

We studied our 30-day postoperative outcomes in patients with non-traumatic gastroduodenal perforation (NTGDP) in Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, southwestern Uganda. We conducted a one-year prospective study of patients who underwent exploratory laparotomy for suspected NTGDP between June 2016 and July 2017. Twenty-nine patients had NTGDP, the male-to-female ratio was 3:1 and median age was 60 years (range = 13-80 years). Most (83%) patients were negative for Helicobacter pylori on histology. One patient had a gastric adenocarcinoma. A total of 26 (90%) patients had Graham's omentopexy performed. The 30-day mortality rate was 34%. Pyrexia at hospital admission, pre-surgical delay (> 72 h), preoperative shock and peritoneal contamination, were associated with higher mortality rates with preoperative shock being an independent predictor of mortality. H. pylori-negative NTGDP presents a unique challenge in our setting, affecting mainly middle-aged and elderly patients. One-third of our patients did not survive one month.