Evaluation of common ultrasound findings in female patients who present with pelvic pain at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Pelvic pain is the abdominal pain located below the level of the umbilicus including lower back pain with or without radiation into the thighs. It may be acute, intermittent or chronic. This usually affects women more than men possibly because of genetic, hormonal, sociocultural, reproductive organ differences, and anthropological reasons. In women, pelvic pain can be an indication that there may be a problem with one or more of the organs within the pelvic region such as the urogenital and reproductive organs. This study aimed to evaluate the common causes of pelvic pain in females using the ultrasound findings of patients presenting at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua.

MATERIALS AND METHOD: This study adopted a retrospective non-experimental design to obtain and analyze data from the Radiology Department, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua over eighteen months. 1599 cases were obtained using a convenience sampling method. The resulting data was analyzed using SPSS software version 28.01.1.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Findings from this study showed that females aged 15-49 accounted for 52.60% of the cases whose ages were specified. The transabdominal scan was the dominant ultrasonographic technique used for pelvic evaluation. Uterine fibroid, pelvic inflammatory disease and ovarian cyst were responsible for the majority of the pelvic pain in the cases where pathology was identified, while ovarian adenocarcinoma, hepatitis, and leiomyosarcoma were least implicated in pelvic pain aetiology.