Spina bifida: a prospective study from a single neurosurgical center based on the National Hospital in Niamey (Niger)

Excerpt

Spinal malformations belonging to neural tube defects (NTD) represent a serious and frequent problem during the neonatal period. Although prenatal diagnosis and folic acid supplementation in industrialized countries is now the rule, this is not the case in developing countries. There is very little data available in Niger other than the retrospective study published in 2001 by our center [1]. This study was retrospective and involved all NTD both at the cephalic and spinal level. The whole population was studied without specifying the particularities according to the pathological aspect of the malformation and its location. These results are interesting but not very informative with regard to the specific subject of spina bifida. This led us to carry out a prospective study of all children admitted to the Neurosurgery Center of the Niamey National Hospital between September 2015 and June 2016. During this period, 61 cases were included in this study. They were 37 males and 24 females. The clinical data were without any peculiar features: predominance of open forms with secondary epidermization or not; the malformation affected mainly the lumbosacral region (74%). The vast majority of the patients came from rural areas (53/61). Ethnical background was as follows: Haoussa (54/1%), Djerma (26.2%), and Peulh (14.8%). The other cases were distributed among the other ethnicities and represented only few cases. …