Browsing by Author "Dogbe, J."

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    Pain Description and Presentation in Children Admitted to a Teaching Hospital in Ghana
    (MedCrave, 2015-05-19) Hammond, C. K.; Dogbe, J.; Osei Tutu, L.; Owusu, M.
    Pain is a cardinal symptom of many disease states and a common reason for hospital attendance. In children, however, it is often under treated, partly due to the difficulty in its assessment. This study outlines the causes, anatomic locations and verbal descriptions of pain in children admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ashanti, Ghana. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 273 children aged 5-12 years. Using a structured questionnaire, we obtained information through patient interview and folder review on the causes, locations and verbal descriptions of pain in children hospitalized for non-traumatic medical conditions including cancers. Findings: Sickle cell disease, infections and cancers were the main causes of pain in children admitted to the unit. Abdominal pain was the most frequently reported. Pain description in either English or the local language, Akan was difficult for most children. Conclusion/Recommendations: Pain description is difficult for most Ghanaian children as it requires the use of complex adult language. Therefore, in the management of pain in this population, it is recommended that the clinician places less emphasis on the exact description of pain and rather focus on effective pain relief.
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    Pattern of Childhood Cancers Presenting to the Paediatric Cancer Unit of a Tertiary Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana
    (MedCrave, 2015-11-05) Paintsil, V.; Dogbe, J.; Blay, Nguah; Osei Akoto, A; Osei Tutu, L; Hammond, C
    Introduction: Childhood cancers are increasing in incidence worldwide with geographic differences having an impact on the types of cancers seen. The main aim of this study was to assess the trends in yearly proportions and number of cases seen, to determine age and gender proportions of the types of cancers and types of childhood cancers diagnosed at the cancer unit from 2012 through 2014. The purpose of this study is to set the baseline framework for future research to improve knowledge, clinical care and advocacy programmes for the newly established paediatric cancer unit in KATH in Kumasi, Ghana. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to review secondary data from the paediatric cancer registry of all patients aged 0-15 years diagnosed with cancer by fine needle aspiration cytology and tissue biopsy at the paediatric cancer unit from 2012-2014. Demographic, anthropometric and clinical data stored in excel was exported to Stata and analysed. Simple descriptive statistics was used and presented in tables. Results: Out of 309 cases, 187(60.5%, 95%CI: 54.8-66.0) were males. Burkitt’s lymphoma (126, 40.8%) was the most common cancer seen followed by Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (31, 10%), Wilm’s Tumour (28, 9.1%), other NonHodgkin’s Lymphoma (28, 9.1%), and retinoblastoma (22, 7.1%). Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was the commonest cancer in the age group 10-15 years, Burkitt ’s lymphoma in the 5-10 year age group and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in the under 5 years group. Conclusion and Recommendations: There is an observable trend in the progressive increment in the number of cancer cases presenting to the unit over the three years period. Except for the lymphomas, CNS cancers and osteosarcomas which were commoner in the 5-9 years age group, most of the other childhood cancers; leukaemias, renal cancers, soft tissue sarcomas and neuroblatomas were predominant in the 0-4 year age group. Except for a few rare cancers, majority of the common cancers affected more males than females in the paediatric population studied. The Male: Female ratio of all the cases was 1.5:1. The lymphomas were the commonest cancers diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma being the highest among the 5-9 years group. The acute lymphoblastic leukaemias were next to the lymphomas in KATH. Based on these findings, further studies need to be conducted into the specific clinical patterns particularly, the lymphomas and leukaemias for better case management.