Landmine injuries at the Emergency Management Center in Erbil, Iraq

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Landmines can cause death, injury and disability in addition to many indirect public health consequences. This study aimed at understanding the trends, demography and other epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized landmine injured patients in Erbil governorate.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The case records of landmine injured patients who had been admitted to the Emergency Management Centre in Erbil city from July 1998 to July 2007 were reviewed and descriptively analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two hundred eighty five landmine injured patients were admitted to the center, their mean ± SD age was 26.5 ± 13.2 years (range 6-71 years), 95.1% were males, nearly 50% were between 19 to 35 years of age and 96.8% were civilians. Around 72% of victims sustained limb amputations; 58.6% lower limb and 13.3% upper limb out of the total. The hospital mortality rate was 2.1%. The number of admissions for landmine injury was steadily decreasing between July 1998 and July 2001, followed by prominent increase between July 2002 and July 2003. The highest proportion of admissions occurred in summer (35.4%) and majority of incidents occurred along the borders with Iran and Turkey (61.8%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Civilian male adolescents and young adults constituted the majority of hospitalized landmine victims in Erbil governorate. While a high proportion of victims sustained lower limb amputations, upper limb amputations particularly among children and injury to head and face were relatively common which might be attributed to handling explosives. This emphasizes the need to examine the reasons behind handling explosives.</p

Malignant lymphoma in northern Iraq: A retrospective analysis of 270 cases according to the World Health Organization classification

Background: Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) classification, the distribution of various subtypes of malignant lymphoma (ML) appears to differ by geographical region. Aims and Design: studying the patterns of ML retrospectively in a previously uncharted country (Iraq) and to compare it with patterns observed regionally and worldwide. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and seventy lymphoma patients referred to two major histopathology referral centers in Northern Iraq, were categorized according to the WHO classification, using morphology and appropriate immunohistochemistry. Results: There were 205 (76%) non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and 65 (24%) Hodgkin lymphomas (HL). Of the NHL, 91% were B-cell and 9% T-cell. The most common NHL was Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) which comprised 52.2% of NHL, followed by Burkitt\u2032s lymphoma (BL) at 14.6%. The latter were mostly intestinal primaries. While follicular lymphomas (FL) were infrequent constituting 2.9 % of NHL. Extranodal primaries were found in 48.3% of NHL. Hodgkin\u2032s lymphoma (HL) included 48% nodular sclerosis (NS) and 37% mixed cellularity (MC). All HL were nodal primaries. Conclusions: Among NHL, the high frequencies of DLBCL, extra nodal primaries and intestinal BL, and the infrequency of FL in northern Iraq, is similar to reports from nearby countries but differs considerably from the West and Far East, indicating a shared regional Middle East influence on non-Hodgkin lymphoma patterns. In contrast to earlier Iraqi and regional studies on HL, NS has surpassed MC as the most frequent histological subtype in Northern Iraq. This trend probably reflects the increasing urbanization that has taken place in this region

Malignant lymphoma in northern Iraq: A retrospective analysis of 270 cases according to the World Health Organization classification

Background: Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) classification, the distribution of various subtypes of malignant lymphoma (ML) appears to differ by geographical region. Aims and Design: studying the patterns of ML retrospectively in a previously uncharted country (Iraq) and to compare it with patterns observed regionally and worldwide. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and seventy lymphoma patients referred to two major histopathology referral centers in Northern Iraq, were categorized according to the WHO classification, using morphology and appropriate immunohistochemistry. Results: There were 205 (76%) non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and 65 (24%) Hodgkin lymphomas (HL). Of the NHL, 91% were B-cell and 9% T-cell. The most common NHL was Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) which comprised 52.2% of NHL, followed by Burkitt′s lymphoma (BL) at 14.6%. The latter were mostly intestinal primaries. While follicular lymphomas (FL) were infrequent constituting 2.9 % of NHL. Extranodal primaries were found in 48.3% of NHL. Hodgkin′s lymphoma (HL) included 48% nodular sclerosis (NS) and 37% mixed cellularity (MC). All HL were nodal primaries. Conclusions: Among NHL, the high frequencies of DLBCL, extra nodal primaries and intestinal BL, and the infrequency of FL in northern Iraq, is similar to reports from nearby countries but differs considerably from the West and Far East, indicating a shared regional Middle East influence on non-Hodgkin lymphoma patterns. In contrast to earlier Iraqi and regional studies on HL, NS has surpassed MC as the most frequent histological subtype in Northern Iraq. This trend probably reflects the increasing urbanization that has taken place in this region