Prevalence and presentation of uterine fibroid in a private hospital in Enugu: A 5-year retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Fibroids are the commonest benign tumours of the uterus. They occur more commonly in the nulliparous women, and among the blacks. They are frequently found incidentally on ultrasonography but common presenting symptoms are abdominal swelling, heavy menstrual bleeding and sub-fertility. Surgery is the definitive treatment modality with most women having myomectomy to preserve fertility. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, presentation and treatment outcomes of fibroid cases treated in the centre. Result: From the study, 42 patients were diagnosed with uterine fibroids over the 5-year period out of a total of 338 gynaecological patients treated in the hospital. This gave a prevalence of 12.42% in the 5-year period. Majority of them, 20(47.6%) were aged 31-40 years, 13(31%) were between 21 and 30 years whereas only 9(21.4%) were aged 41 years and above. Almost all the patients 38(90.5%) were from the Igbo ethnic group; 21(50%) had secondary education while 19(45.2%) had tertiary education. Twenty of them (47.6%) were either civil servants or professionals, 19(42.5%) were traders and 3(7.1%) were unemployed. It also revealed that 22(52.4%) were nulliparous, 11(16.7%) were multiparous and only 2(4.8%) were grand multiparous. More than a quatre of the patients 17(40.5%) presented with abdominal swelling, 14(33.3%) with heavy menses, 8(19%) with infertility and the least 3(7.2%) with recurrent miscarriages. Almost all of them 38(90.5%) had myomectomy and only 4(9.5%) had hysterectomy. Only the age and occupation of the patients had a statistically significant influence on the prevalence of uterine fibroid among the women studied. Conclusion: Most of the women who had uterine fibroids were within the age bracket of 31-40 years with heavy menstrual bleeding as the major presenting symptom. Almost all of them had myomectomy as the definitive treatment.