ENT urgencies at Douala General Hospital

CaHReF 2016, Yaoundé Conges hall, 23 – 26 August 2016 , PL152

Urgencies are frequent in the ENT department and prevention is the best way to reduce their frequency. Aim: The general objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and management profiles of ENT urgencies in the ENT department of Douala General Hospital. To achieve this objective, we conducted a longitudinal descriptive study involving the documentary review of patients records received with ENT urgencies from January 2010 to December 2014. 

out of the 18,351 patients received in the ENT department of the Douala General Hospital, 428 (2.33%) presented an urgency. The mean age was 34.19 ± 19.92 years with 20% of patients aged less than 15 years. Sixty percent (60%) of the population were males with a sex ratio of 1.5:1. The maxillofacial trauma was the leading cause of urgencies with a frequency of 23%. Road traffic accidents were the principal circumstances of occurrence (91% of cases). In our study, 6% of cases were emergencies. All the patients were treated and surgery was required in 34% of cases. The complications (6.3%) were exclusively aesthetic and functional. Mortality rate was 0.5%. 
Conclusion: The morbidity associated to ENT urgencies at the Douala General hospital is low but the demand for high performance care (surgery) is considerably elevated, as well as the frequency of the complications too.

ENT emergencies, epidemiology, Douala General Hospital