Prevalence of bone tumours in Sokoto, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Bone tumours were considered comparatively infrequent before. Recently, the incidence of bone tumours were observed  to increasing. Bone tumours are clinically quite significant since some of them are highly malignant and can metastasize to different part  of the human body. Limited data is available with regard to the prevalence of bone tumours in Sokoto. Therefore, determination of  prevalence of bone tumours among the patients attending Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto is of  paramount important.

Methodology: A total of seven thousand five hundred and three (7503) tumour cases were submitted to the histopathology laboratory  for diagnosis from January 2006 to June 2012. The age, sex, site and diagnosis of the patients were recorded. Formalin-fixed / Paraffin wax  embedded tissue blocks were used for the research. 5µm sections were cut on a rotary microtome. Sections cut from tissue blocks  were stained with Haematoxylin and eosin staining technique. Photomicrographs were taken from slides with detailed information and  diagnosis.

Results: The result shows that out of 7503 biopsy samples only 39(0.52%) were diagnosed as bone tumours. This accounts for  the prevalence of 0.52% of the total number of tumour cases. The male to female for bone tumours ratio was found to be 1.6:1.  

Conclusion: Bone tumours were less common in the study area, with higher incidence in male as compared to female, distributed mostly  around lower limb and were commonly found in the patients at 2nd to 3rd decades of life. Benign giant cell tumour was the most  commonly encountered tumour.