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. 2022 Mar 29;12(3):e051741.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051741.

Burden of cancer in the general surgical population in the eastern region of Ghana

Elizabeth Josephine Olecki  1 , Paddy Ssentongo  2 , Joseph Dao  3 , William G Wong  1 , Kelly A Stahl  1 , Richard Ofosu-Akromah  4 , Foster Amponsah-Manu  4 , Colette Pameijer  5
Affiliations

Burden of cancer in the general surgical population in the eastern region of Ghana

Elizabeth Josephine Olecki et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the surgical burden of malignant disease in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Setting: Regional hospital in the eastern region of Ghana.

Participants: Patients treated by the surgery department at Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua, Ghana.

Interventions: None.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary outcome was incidence of malignancy and secondary outcome descriptive differences between patients who had a benign indication for surgery compared with those with a malignant indication for surgery.

Results: A total of 1943 inpatient surgical procedures were performed from 2015 to 2017 with 13.4% (261) of all procedures ultimately performed for malignancy. Of all breast procedures performed, 95.2% of procedures resulted in a malignant diagnosis. The remaining subtypes of procedures had rates ranging from <1% to 41.2% of procedures performed for malignant disease. Additionally, this study found over 13% of patients admitted to the surgical service for breast cancer ultimately did not undergo a surgical procedure.

Conclusion: This is the first study investigating the burden of malignant disease in the Eastern Region of Ghana. We found a substantial prevalence of malignant disease in the surgical population in this region. This information can be used to aid in future medical resource planning in this region.

Keywords: oncology; pathology; surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of patients included in study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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