Basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation knowledge of house-officers in a tertiary institution: factors determining accuracy

Abstract Background: To assess the level of knowledge of CPR among House-Officers (HO) and some factors determining accuracy of knowledge

Traumatic chest injury in children: A single thoracic surgeon′s experience in two Nigerian tertiary hospitals

Background: This study was to determine the extent and outcome of childhood chest injury in Nigeria, and to compare results with that of other literatures. Patients and Methods: A Prospective study of all children under 18 years of age with chest trauma in two tertiary hospitals in Southern Nigeria from January 2012 to December 2014 was reviewed. The aetiology, type, associated injury, mechanism, treatment and outcome were evaluated. The patients were followed up in the clinic. The data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0 with a significant P 12-h versus 2 who presented <12-h and 6 of children between 0 and 9 years versus 3 at 10-18 years of age had empyema thoracis (P value not significant). One death was recorded. Conclusion: Chest trauma in children is still not common, and blunt chest injury from falls and automobile accidents are more common than penetrating chest injury. Treatment with tube thoracostomy is the major management modality with empyema thoracis as the most common complication

Trauma: a major cause of death among surgical inpatients of a Nigerian tertiary hospital

Introduction: Trauma presents a significant global health burden. Death resulting from trauma remains high in low income countries despite asteady decrease in developed countries. Analysis of the pattern of death will enable intervention to reduce these deaths from trauma in developingcountries. This study aims to present the pattern of trauma-related deaths in the surgical wards of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital(UPTH).Methods: This was a retrospective study of all patients who died from trauma during admission into the surgical wards of UPTH from 2007 to 2012. Data on demography and traumatic events leading to death were collected from surgical wards, the emergency unit, and theatre records and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: Trauma accounted for 219 (42.4%) of the 527 mortalities  recorded. Most of the deaths (62.6 %) occurred between 20 and 59 years. There were 148 males (67.6 %). The yearly mortality rates were as  follows: 2007(12.3 %); 2008 (16.9%); 2009 (9.1%), 2010 (12.8 %), 2011 (23.3%) and 2012 (25.6%). Most of the patients (91.3%) died within 1 month of admission. The major events leading to deaths were burns  105(47.9%), traumatic brain injuries were 63(28.8%), and spinal cord injuries 21(9.6%). The secondary causes of death were mainly septic shock 112(51.1%); Respiratory failure 60(27.4%); and Multiple organ dysfunction 44(20.1%).Conclusion: Trauma is a leading cause of mortality in the surgical wards of our hospital. Trauma -related deaths continues to increase over theyears. Safe keeping of petroleum products and adherence to traffic rules will reduce these avoidable deaths.Key words: Trauma, mortality, surgical wards, Port Harcourt, Nigeri

Massive Pleural Fluid Collection in Adult Nigerians

Background. There are no available literatures on massive pleural effusions (MPE) in our country. Aim. To determine the aetiology of MPE and compare the mortality rate between malignant and nonmalignant MPE in adult Nigerians. Methods. A prospective study of all the patients diagnosed with nontraumatic pleural fluid collections for one year in two tertiary federal hospitals in Southern Nigeria. A total of 101 consecutive patients with pleural fluid collections were studied. Diagnoses were made by clinical features and laboratory and radiological investigations. Results. Forty-eight patients (47.5%) had MPE with a mean age of 43 years ± 14.04 and 35 were females. Thirty patients (62.5%) were diagnosed with nonmalignant conditions (21 from pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and 9 from other causes). Haemorrhagic pleural collections were from malignancy in 12 (30.8%) and from PTB in 6 (15.4%). Straw-coloured collections were from malignancy in 9 (23.1%), from PTB in 8 (20.1%), and from posttraumatic exudative effusion in 3 (7.7%). Compared with nonmalignant MPE, patients with malignant collections had higher mortality within 6 months (8/18 versus 0/30 with a P value of 0.000). Conclusion. The presentation of patients with nontraumatic haemorrhagic or straw-coloured MPE narrows the diagnosis to PTB and malignancy with MPE cases being a marker for short survival rate