A Survey of Wound Carein a Surgical Department in an Urban Clinical Setting in Northern Part of Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify, quantify the demographic, wound characteristics and treatment objectives of patients admitted in the surgical department of this tertiary hospital. Study design: A pre-prepared questionnaire was used for data collection. The questions were related to patient socio-demographic characteristics and their knowledge and attitude towards the wound management. The data collection took place from October 1 st to December 31 st 2016. Result: Data from 67 patients (59.7% male; 40.3% female) were collected. 29.9% were between 20-30years of age, 19.4% were alcoholics and 28.4% were traders. Majority of the wounds were caused by automobile accident (46.3%), mostly located on the legs (31.3%), majorly close wounds (85.1%) with duration of 7 days. Almost all the patients experienced wound pain (95.5%) located on the wound area (52.2%), 23.9% found itdifficult to sleep and 85.1% were prescribed drugs. 86.6% had dressing changes and this was done twice weekly (32.8%). Conclusion: There is need to improve outcomes, reduce the burden of wounds and improve health related quality of life.

Economic Burden of Inpatient Wound Dressing in Nigeria: Implication for Catastrophic Household Expenditure

“…The result is consistent with a similar study by Ogundeji et al [2] where more than eighty per cent of the patients were on daily wound dressing. The result is also in line with Builders and Oseni-Momodu's [15] ndings in Bingham University teaching hospital Jos Nigeria where about ninety per cent of the respondents were on alternate day wound dressing. Furthermore, ndings are also consistent with alternate day dressing in a study conducted by Odhiambo et al [16] in a County hospital in Kenya.…”

“…In essence, inadequate access to medical care is by far causing perpetual disparities between the poor and the rich as the poor becomes poorer because of prolonged health care expenditure [3,12,13] Importantly, research evidence suggests that the high costs associated with wound management can be attributed to repeated dressing changes [14] . Builders and Oseni-Momodu's [15] study in Bingham University teaching hospital Jos Nigeria reported that 86.6% of the patients had dressing changes rst twice per week and later weekly (29.9%). Similarly, in Odhiambo, Omondi and Magak's [16] study on wound dressing techniques and costs at a County hospital in Kenya, wound dressing was done every third day while a study on the economic burden of wound dressing among patients attending the teaching hospital in South Western Nigeria indicated that more than 80% of the wounds required daily dressing [2] Consequently, in Nigeria, there is a paucity of data that specify the overall cost of inpatient wound dressings.…”