The spectrum of non- neoplastic skin lesions in Ibadan, Nigeria: a histopathologic study

Abstract

Introduction Non-neoplastic skin lesions constitute the majority of skin diseases. There is a paucity of histopathology studies of non-neoplastic skin diseases in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region in general. This is because the dermato-pathology sub-specialty is poorly developed. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to determine the spectrum of histologically diagnosed non-neoplastic skin lesions in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods This is a retrospective study. All non-neoplastic skin lesions diagnosed in the Department of Pathology, University College Hospital, Ibadan over a five year period. (January 2006 to December 2010) was reviewed. The lesions were classified into eight groups according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 of skin and subcutaneous disorders. The main classes include Dermatitis/Eczema, Papulosquamous disorders, Infectious disorders, Connective tissue diseases, Bullous disorders, Naevi/Developmental lesions, Granulomatous lesions, keratinizing disorders and other categories/Miscellaneous group. Results A total of 209 non-neoplastic skin lesions comprised 1.3% of all surgical pathology specimen received within the study period. The modal age group was 20-29. The Dermatitis/Eczema group has the highest frequency of 87 cases representing 41.6% of cases, papulosquamous disorders 39 (18.7%), infectious disorders 37 (17.7%), bullous disorders 11 (5.3%) and connective tissue disorder 9 (4.3%). Chronic non-specific dermatitis was the commonest specific diagnosis comprising 60 cases (28.7%) of all the skin diseases. The other common specific skin lesions were lichen planus/lichenoid dermatitis 27(12.9% of 209 cases), verruca vulgaris 25 (12% of 209 cases). Conclusion The number of histologically diagnosed non-neoplastic skin lesions is relatively small. There is a very wide spectrum of non-neoplastic skin lesions diagnosed within this period. There is a need for a specific diagnosis considering the high frequency of chronic non-specific dermatitis.

Histopathological spectrum of skin diseases in a tertiary skin health and referral centre

“…The most common vesicobullous disease is spongiotic dermatitis (84.8%) and this finding is similar to the finding of Ogun GO et al 20 Among papulosquamous diseases, psoriasis and lichen planus are the predominating diseases in many studies. 21,22 In our study, psoriasis and lichen planus are common diseases after erythema dyschromicum perstans.…”

Pediatric Brain tumors in Southeast Nigeria; A prospective longitudinal cohort study

“…In Morocco, a North African country, a large epidemiological study found a mean age of 9.3years [11]. A slight male preponderance found in our study is similar to some previous studies both from our country and elsewhere [4,22,23,30]. Headache was the most common presenting features among supratentorial tumors while unsteadiness of gait occurred more frequently among infratentorial tumors.…”

“…The annual incidence appears low; however, it may reflect constraints in accessing care by patients generally and pediatric brain tumor patients specifically. Some of the constraints have been studied extensively [23,30]. At 9.5±2.1 years, the mean age of occurrence of pediatric brain tumors is similar to that from a previous study performed by the lead author of this paper and other researchers from another region of our country [30], as well as a recent retrospective study from a center in our subregion with a smaller sample size [22].…”

“…A previous study found a high incidence of craniopharyngiomas among black children in the United States of America [29]. Our study seems to highlight this racial and geographical predisposition to pediatric brain tumors or may reflect a changing trend more so with the predominance of craniopharyngiomas in our series (22.6%) when compared to previous studies from other centers in our country [22,23,30], and elsewhere, some of which reported a higher frequency of occurrence of astrocytomas and medulloblastomas [3, 9, 10].Low grade gliomas were predominant among adolescents between 15 and 16 years. We found a significant association between hemoglobin genotype and the three most common histological variants of brain tumors using Fishers exact test (P = 0.033).…”

“…Although the finding above is supported by another report from our sub region [4], it differed from reports from other regions in our country [1,23,30] as well as previous studies in other parts of the world [4,11,33]. This may suggest some geographical variability in the topographical distribution of brain tumors which has been reported by some authors to be influenced by age [3,15].…”