Article Sidebar
Article Details
Issue
Section
Articles
Authors submitting articles to The Annals of African Surgery do so on the understanding that if accepted, they will retain the copyright and allow the journal to publish and archive the article under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on the Creative commons website. All authors will be required to sign an Author Agreement form detailing the agreement with the journal prior to the article being published. Download the form here
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Main Article Content
The Pattern of Breast Diseases at Kenyatta National Hospital
Abstract
Objective: To determine the pattern of breast diseases.
Design: Retrospective descriptive study.
Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), a University Teaching and National Referral Hospital.
Patients: One thousand one hundred and seventy two patients records were reviewed.
Results: An average 469 new patients per year or 11 new patients per clinic visit were reviewed over a two and a half year period. Females predominated (98.9%). The mean age
of the patients was 34.71 years (range 1 to 96 years). The average age at menarche was 14.49 years and the mean duration of symptoms was 6.86 months. Only 2.6% of 843 patients had a positive family history of breast disease.
Fibroadenoma was the commonest diagnosis made (33.2%) followed by ductal carcinoma (19.7%). Gynaecomastia was the most common lesion seen in males. Two thirds of patients
presenting with lumps had masses measuring more than 5cm. Overall, five conditions (fibroadenoma, ductal carcinoma, breast
abscesses, fibrocystic disease and mastalgia) accounted for over 85% of all breast ailments. Surgery formed the mainstay of care in over 80% of patients.
Conclusions: The pattern of breast diseases at KNH closely mirrors those reported in literature. This study indicates that a large proportion of patients presenting with breast
diseases are treated initially by surgery. It may be wise to consider other alternative forms of therapy where appropriate.
Design: Retrospective descriptive study.
Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), a University Teaching and National Referral Hospital.
Patients: One thousand one hundred and seventy two patients records were reviewed.
Results: An average 469 new patients per year or 11 new patients per clinic visit were reviewed over a two and a half year period. Females predominated (98.9%). The mean age
of the patients was 34.71 years (range 1 to 96 years). The average age at menarche was 14.49 years and the mean duration of symptoms was 6.86 months. Only 2.6% of 843 patients had a positive family history of breast disease.
Fibroadenoma was the commonest diagnosis made (33.2%) followed by ductal carcinoma (19.7%). Gynaecomastia was the most common lesion seen in males. Two thirds of patients
presenting with lumps had masses measuring more than 5cm. Overall, five conditions (fibroadenoma, ductal carcinoma, breast
abscesses, fibrocystic disease and mastalgia) accounted for over 85% of all breast ailments. Surgery formed the mainstay of care in over 80% of patients.
Conclusions: The pattern of breast diseases at KNH closely mirrors those reported in literature. This study indicates that a large proportion of patients presenting with breast
diseases are treated initially by surgery. It may be wise to consider other alternative forms of therapy where appropriate.
