Retroperitoneal paraganglioma causing proximal ureteric obstruction in a child: diagnostic conundrum and immunohistochemistry characteristics (case report).

Paragangliomas are extremely rare neuroendocrine tumors with an incidence of 0.3 cases per million in children. They arise from several sites in the body including the orbit, ear, nose, larynx, carotid area, mediastinum, duodenum, and the genitourinary tract. Germline mutations have been identified in paragangliomas involving the proto-oncogene RET, tumor suppressor genes VHL, and NF1 The commonest clinical presentation is hypertension but incidentally detected forms have been reported during imaging and on a few occasions the diagnosis was missed. The authors report on a case of a 12-year-old male with a history of fever, left flank pain, vomiting, and headaches, finally diagnosed by pathological examination of a resected retroperitoneal mass invading the proximal left ureter. Immunohistochemistry was positive for neuron-specific enolase, NSE (chief cells), and S-100 protein (sustentacular cells) all consistent with paragangliomas. The challenges faced by the team in the preoperative evaluation and surgical treatment are reported.

Atherosclerosis of cavernosal arteries as a cause of erectile dysfunction in an adult: our findings on triplex doppler sonography.

A sixty year old man presented to our health facility with a year history of severe erectile dysfunction (International Index of Erectile Function Score of 5 (IIEF-5)). He was also a known hypertensive and currently being managed for hypertensive heart disease by the Cardiologist. Colour Doppler interrogation of the Cavernosal Arteries showed multiple areas of narrowing in both arteries, giving beaded appearance. The peak systolic velocities of the arteries were less than 25cm/s, and there was persistent diastolic flow in the entire spectral recordings, prompting the diagnosis of arteriogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) secondary to atherosclerosis of the cavernosal arteries. He had medical treatment with PGE5-I, and intracavernosal injection of prostaglandin E1 (Caverjet), but all to no avail. He was counselled for penile implant and he is favourably disposed to that but largely being limited by funds. Funding: None Declared.

Assessment of Health-care Research and Its Challenges among Medical Doctors in Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: Health-care research in Nigeria has been growing over the years but is constrained by many difficulties. This study aimed to identify the challenges encountered in health-care research and suggest policies to address these problems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study of medical doctors who have been involved in health-related researches. All participants filled a self-administered online questionnaire comprising 31 questions in five sections. The responses were analyzed using the Google forms and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 23. RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 41.0 ± 8.4 years. Three-quarters of the respondents (75.5%) worked in teaching hospitals. Nearly all (96.6%) carried out their studies using personal funds and only one in 10 had been involved in high-budget projects (≥₦1,000,000). The generation of quality researches was impeded by the restriction of literature review to free online journals (93.2%), incomplete health records (88.0%), limited access to research kits (65.7%), limited use of advanced statistical analysis (29.8%), and challenges with obtaining ethical approval (21.2%). Despite the average online visibility of these researches (52.2%), only 28.5% stated that it has been locally adopted to influence medical practice in their center. CONCLUSION: There is a wide disparity in research capacity among hospital tiers. It is important to leverage on and expand existing partnerships to provide institutional access to premium literature, offer robust, and assessable financial support for the conduct of high-quality researches and provide a framework to bridge the gap in the use of these works to influence practice change in Nigeria.

Hypospadias repair and outcome in Abuja, Nigeria: A 5-year single-centre experience.

BACKGROUND: To determine the outcome of hypospadias repair in children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective study of all patients with hypospadias managed at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria from January 2009 to December 2013. RESULTS: Twenty-four cases of hypospadias had corrective surgery during the 5-year period under review. Seventy-five percent of the patients (n = 18) were seen after the 1 st year of life. There were two peaks of ages at corrective repair; 45.8% between age 1 and 3 years and 29.1% between age 5 and 10 years. The average age at time of surgery was 44.9 months. Distal hypospadias were more common (58.4%), followed by glanular (20.8%) and proximal (20.8%) hypospadias. Associated anomalies included chordee, maldescended testicles and inguinal hernia in 20.8%, 4.1% and 8.3% cases, respectively. Operative techniques were single-stage procedures in 79.1% of patients consisting of simple circumcision in two cases (10.5%), Mathieu's peri-meatal based flap in four cases (21%), meatal advancement and glanuloplasty incorporated in three cases (16%) and Snodgrass tubularised incised urethral plate tubularised incised plate in 10 cases (52.5%). The remaining 20.9% (n = 5) had multi-staged procedures. The most common post-operative complications were urethrocutenous fistula in nine patients (33.3%) and metal stenosis in 3 patients (12.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that hypospadia repair is froth with attendant high complications in our setting.