Epidemiologic Perspectives of Incidental Appendectomy During Ovariectomy for Teratoma in a Developing Community, Nigeria

Abstract

Wilson I.B. Onuigbo

My interest in the field of Sociology flowered with a recent publication which pertained to using the reprint requests (RR) to trace how the brain drain phenomenon occurs throughout the whole world. Before it, with reference to a large Nigerian communal group called the Ibos or Igbos, there was a publication on ovarian disease called teratoma as well as on another on the desirability of going outside a major operation by including the removal of an uninvolved appendix! Accordingly, the purpose of this paper was to present the epidemiologic perspectives of patients and their doctors in a retrospective series emanating between the 1970s and 1990s, using data collected personally in a Regional Reference Laboratory situated in Enugu, erstwhile capital of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. This was done in agreement with a UK Group that attested to the importance of establishing histopathology data pool useful in epidemiologic analysis. The results are deemed to be worthy of documentation.

PDF