Article Sidebar
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
To drain or not to drain after thyroid surgery: A randomized controlled trial at a tertiary Hospital in East Africa
Abstract
Introduction: In many facilities, drains are routinely inserted after thyroidectomy with the aim of preventing hematoma formation and accumulation of seroma. The continued use of drains may be based more on tradition rather than proven scientific evidence.
Objective: To assess the benefit of drain use after thyroidectomy by determining; length of hospital stay, post operative pain and wound sepsis.
Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial, carried out at a tertiary national referral hospital (Mulago, Kampala). Over a 6 month period in 2011, we recruited 68 patients. Socio-demographic information and clinical parameters were recorded. Outcomes measures were evaluated. Data were double entered into epidata version 3.1.1 and analyzed using STATA
version 10.0. Ethical approval was secured.
Results: Mean age of participants was 46 and 43.7 years in drain and no drain arm respectively. Most participants were female. Mean duration of hospital stay after thyroidectomy was significantly higher among the drain arm as compared with the no drain arm [2.41 (±0.89) vs 1.71 (±0.76) days (p= 0.0008)]. One patient (drain arm) had wound infection. The pain
score on the postoperative day was statistically higher among in the drain arm than the no drain arm [5.71 vs 2.53 (p =0.001)].
Conclusion: Not inserting a drain post operatively after thyroid surgery was associated with short hospital stay and less operative pain. Results of this study do not support routine drainage after thyroid surgery.
Key words: thyroid surgery, drains, outcomes
