Etiology of Arthritis in Lomé (Togo)

Abstract

Aim: Determine the frequency and respective proportion of the various etiological forms of arthritis in Lome (Togo). Patients and Methods: Transversal study carried out over 15 years on files of arthritis infected patients and submitted to rheumatologic consultation. Results: 1081 out of 13,517 patients examined (8%) were suffering from arthritis. Those 1081 patients (456 women, 42.2% and 625 men, 57.8%) were in average 38 years old and enjoyed an average duration of evolution of three years. The chronic inflammatory rheumatisms (CIR) (602 cases, 56.9%), the metabolic arthropathies (233 cases, 22%) and the infections (198 cases, 16.6%), were the main etiologies that were observed. The average age of 198 patients with infectious arthritis was 36 years and the average duration of 9 months. Infectious arthritis was preferably located at the knee (34.3%), and was essentially caused by a banal germ (157 patients; 79.3%) and associated with HIV in 25 patients (15.9%). The remaining 233 patients (9 women, and 224 men) suffering from metabolic arthritis were in average 52 years old and enjoyed an average duration of evolution of five years. The chronic inflammatory rheumatisms were mainly represented by spondyloarthropathies (90 cases, 14.9%) and the arthritis rheumatoid (64 cases, 10.6%). 399 out of 602 cases of the CIR were not classified while 52 cases were associated with HIV. The connective tissue diseases were dominated by the polymyositis (9 cases, 18.7%). Conclusion: The chronic inflammatory rheumatisms were the first causal form of arthritis in rheumatologic consultation in Lome.