Abstract
This paper describes the reasons for 403 patients to receive a CT-scan of their head and neck in the Department of Radiology of the Mulago Hospital in Kampala Uganda in 2011–2012. The objective of this study was to determine the indications for this imaging investigation and the total percentage of patients with each indication. The study undertook to answer these three major questions: 1) Which were the most common indications for a CT-Brain scan? 2) Was there a gender difference in the imaged patients? 3) Were there age differences in each category of the imaged patients?
We examined 403 cases and noted these 16 different indications for Brain CT scans:
Head Trauma, Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA), Space Occupying Lesion (SOL), Head Symptoms, Brain Tumors, Cryptococcus/Toxoplasmosis/HIV Meningitis, Headache, Seizures, Spinal Symptoms, Facial Injury, Dementia, Congenital Anomalies, Follow up, Psychiatric indications, Encephalitis and Loss of Consciousness (LOC). For each category we included the number of cases with the gender and age of the patient being imaged.
Head trauma and especially from Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) was the most common indication for a Brain CT-scan request forming 48 % of the cases. The many Road Traffic Accidents, 48% of the cases, were due to the presence of small motor bike taxis called “boda-boda”. CVA were the second most common indications forming 11 %. Combined, RTA and general trauma to the head form a major burden on the country.
In terms of gender, for the 403 cases we reviewed 277 (69 %) were males while 126 (31 %) females. In all categories of trauma generally, more males than females were affected and this was especially more so in RTA cases where 119 males and only 35 females were imaged. In the cases of assault, more males (32) than females (4) were affected, and finally in cases of trauma due to a fall again more males (9) than females (4) were affected. The few elderly patients (those above 60) that were seen with dementia were primarily females. As for age, in each category, there were more young males (age-bracket 14–44 years) than females. Still this was more evident in the cases of Trauma and CVA.
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- Boda-boda:
-
Small ubiquitous motor cycle taxis
- CHI:
-
Closed head injuries
- y.o.:
-
Years old
- CT-scan:
-
Computer tomography scan
- CVA:
-
Cerebrovascular accidents
- HIV/AIDS:
-
Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
- NCD:
-
Non-Communicable Disease
- OHI:
-
Open head injuries
- RTA:
-
Road Traffic Accidents
- SOL:
-
Space Occupying Lesions
- TBI:
-
Traumatic Brain Injury
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Jacobson, S., Hsieh, T., Yuen, N., Giles, S.S., Byanyima, R.K. (2015). Review of Reasons for Patients to Receive a CT of the Head and Neck Region in Uganda in 2011–2012. In: Musisi, S., Jacobson, S. (eds) Brain Degeneration and Dementia in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2456-1_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2456-1_14
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