Profile of Pediatric Neurosurgery in Nigeria from 1962 to 2021: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of pediatric neurosurgery in Nigeria, since 1962, by assessing epidemiological data, management strategies, and case outcomes.

Methods: A systematic bibliometric review of Nigerian neurosurgical literature was reported with the PRISMA guidelines. The Risk of Bias Assessment Tool was applied to all nonrandomized studies, and a descriptive analysis was performed for all variables.

Results: We identified 12,295 pediatric patients from 196 published studies. Most publications (72.4%) occurred in the recent 2 decades, of which 40.3% were observational case reports/series. The patients were predominantly male (57.2%) and aged 0-18 years, with the majority (66.1%) belonging to the 0-5 age range. Most patients (63.4%) presented between 1-12 months. The most common presenting feature was altered consciousness (7.7%), with computed tomography (38.8%) being the most frequently utilized diagnostic imaging modality. The diagnoses with the greatest prevalence (60.2%) were congenital abnormalities such as hydrocephalus and neural tube defects. 57.5% of cases received surgical therapy, with ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement being the most noticeable procedure performed (36.4%). Complications were identified in 9.5% of cases, with a 4.5% death rate. The Glasgow Outcome Score (95.7%) was the primary outcome measure utilized, with positive outcomes reported in 59.3% of cases.

Conclusions: This review provides significant epidemiological data which emphasizes the country's enormous burden of pediatric neurosurgical cases. The findings can help guide clinical decisions as well as future research and policy development.

Keywords: Growth; Nigeria; Pediatric neurosurgery; Scope; Systematic review; Trends.