Paediatric urologic pathologies at the national teaching hospital in Cotonou: A etiological and therapeutic aspects

Background: Urological pathologies of children are dominated by  congenital malformations of the kidneys and urinary tract. Their  management is often surgical. The objective of this survey was to study etiological and therapeutic aspects of urological presentations in children. Patients and Methods: Data for aetiology, treatment, and results in  children hospitalized at the Paediatric Surgery service of National Teaching Hospital (CNHU) in Cotonou were retrospectively analyzed from January 1999 to December 2008. Results: A total of 214 patients with complete  data were evaluated. Urological pathologies represented 4.8% of the hospitalizations in paediatric surgery, with an incidence of 21 cases per  year. The mean age was 4.9 ± 3.2 years (age 1 week to 14 years). The male to female ratio was 14:14. Cryptorchidism, hydrocele,  nephroblastoma, the posterior urethral valves, ureteropelvic junction  obstructions, postcircumcision haemorrhage and hypospadias were the most frequent pathologies. Congenital urological malformations  represented 81.3%, followed neoplastic pathologies (7.9%), traumatic  pathologies (6.1%) and others (4.7%). The disorders of male genitalia  were more frequent and constituted 68.2% of the cases. The anomalies of the urinary tract were 30.8% and intersex disorders were 0.9%. The  average age of the children urological pathologies at the time of  consultation was 8.85 ± 4.6 years. The treatment was often surgical with a mortality of 2.8%. Key words: Aetiology, child, epidemiology, treatment, uropath