Authors: Goran Jovic D Scott Corlew Kendra G Bowman
Publish Date: 2011/07/02
Volume: 36, Issue: 2, Pages: 241-246
Abstract
The epidemiology of surgical conditions in developing countries is not well studied but plastic and reconstructive surgery can play a significant role in meeting the need for surgical care Knowledge of the conditions treated by a plastic surgeon in a lowincome country would inform the development of surgical servicesThe surgical log of the lead author from 1993 to 2008 was reviewed The cases were performed in 33 surgical facilities in Zambia and name gender age diagnosis procedure and hospital were prospectively recorded Data were analyzed for the number and distribution of cases and for patterns related to age and genderBetween 1993 and 2008 5740 operations were performed and complete data were available for 5735 999 patients There were 5774 surgical diagnoses Of these 3885 672 were acquired conditions These included 1985 343 burns 514 90 keloids 448 78 nonburn traumas 410 71 deep tissue infections and 343 59 tumors The 1889 327 congenital conditions included 1322 229 craniofacial defects and 354 61 limb defects Children accounted for 782 of burns Trauma cases were predominantly male 273 609 Congenital conditions were repaired after 5 years of age in 355 188 casesBased on a 16year case log from one developing country more than half of conditions related to plastic surgery comprised injuries and congenital anomalies Age and genderrelated patterns were evident These findings may inform the provision of resources for injury prevention surgical training and delivery of surgical services
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