An Audited Experience of Therapeutic Endoscopy in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic endoscopy in Nigeria is still in its infancy despite its obvious advantages of minimal access trauma, less post operative pain and shorter hospital stay. Although many gastrointestinal procedures are now being performed endoscopically, there are very few reports of experience with therapeutic endoscopy in Nigeria and the range of procedures are limited most times to upper gastrointestinal interventions. This study was aimed at auditing our experience with therapeutic endoscopy in a developing country. Patients and methods: This was a prospective analysis of all consecutive patients with endoscopic diagnoses of oesophageal varices, benign oesophageal strictures and colorectal polyps that had injection sclerotherapy and rubber band ligation for the varices, oesophageal dilatation for strictures and snare polypectomy for the colorectal polyps. Results: A total of 87 patients had therapeutic endoscopic interventions. Their ages ranged from 11 to 53yrs with a mean age of 37.4 +/- 9.3yrs. There were 63 males and 24 females (M: F = 2.7: 1). Seventy patients (80.5%) had rubber band ligation, while 8 (9.2%) had injection sclerotherapy of oesophageal varices. Six patients (6.9%) had rectal and colonic polypectomies while three patients (3.4%) had dilatation of benign distal oesophageal strictures. Massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding was recorded in one patient complicating injection sclerotherapy. There was no mortality in this study. Conclusion: Therapeutic endoscopy is a safe and worthwhile method of treating gastrointestinal diseases in our environment and the types of pathologies treatable this way is bound to increase as the expertise and equipment become more widely available.