CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL REVIEW OF APPENDICECTOMY SPECIMEN IN A TROPICAL MISSION HOSPITAL

<b>BACKGROUND:</b> Acute appendicitis remains a common surgical condition and the importance of specific elements in the clinical diagnosis remain controversial. It is a disease of the young presenting in children and early adolescents although no age group is exempt. This clinicopathological study aims to determine the various lesions of the surgically removed appendix in a resource constrained mission hospital setting, northwestern Cameroon. <b>METHOD:</b> This retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken to review the histo-pathology reports of all appendectomy specimens submitted to the Pathology department, Central Laboratory of a Mission Hospital; Northwestern region of Cameroon from January 2011 to January 2016. Patient’s socio-demographical data, clinical presentations were extracted from the request form. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 22 and presented with descriptive and inferential statistics. <b>RESULTS:</b> A total of 683 appendices were received during the 5-year study period constituting about 12% of total specimens. The age range of patients in this study is 14–78 years with a mean of 20.12 ± 5.12 years. Acute appendicitis was found in 86.9% of our cases while other lesions constitute 13.1% and negative appendectomy occurred in 4.5% of the cases. <b>CONCLUSION:</b> The incidence of acute appendicitis remains low especially in the rural communities of Africa. We therefore conclude that the current study spanned the entire gamut of pathological processes that involve the appendix and provides a fair idea about the clinicopathological correlation in appendectomy specimens. <b>KEYWORDS: Acute abdomen; Appendix; Appendectomy; Histology; Resource-constrained setting</b> <b> </b> <b> </b> <b> </b> <b> </b>

<b>背景：</b> 急性阑尾炎（Acute appendicitis）仍是常见的外科疾病，其临床诊断中各特异性要素的重要性仍存在争议。该病好发于儿童及青少年早期人群，但并无年龄豁免群体。本临床病理研究旨在明确喀麦隆西北部一所资源受限的教会医院环境下，手术切除阑尾的各类病变类型。
<b>方法：</b> 本研究为回顾性横断面描述性研究，针对2011年1月至2016年1月期间，提交至喀麦隆西北部某教会医院中心实验室病理科的所有阑尾切除术标本的组织病理报告进行回顾分析。从病理申请单中提取患者的社会人口学数据、临床表现等信息。采用SPSS 22.0统计软件对数据进行分析，并以描述性统计与推断性统计结果呈现研究数据。
<b>结果：</b> 本5年研究周期内共接收683份阑尾标本，约占同期总送检标本量的12%。研究纳入患者的年龄范围为14~78岁，平均年龄为20.12±5.12岁。本研究中86.9%的病例确诊为急性阑尾炎，其余13.1%为其他阑尾病变，另有4.5%的病例为阴性阑尾切除术（术后病理未检出阑尾炎病变）。
<b>结论：</b> 急性阑尾炎的发病率仍处于较低水平，在非洲农村社区尤为显著。综上，本研究涵盖了阑尾相关的全部病理过程，可为阑尾切除术标本的临床病理相关性分析提供可靠的参考依据。
<b>关键词：</b> 急腹症（Acute abdomen）；阑尾（Appendix）；阑尾切除术（Appendectomy）；组织学（Histology）；资源受限环境（Resource-constrained setting）