Background and objective: Gastrointestinal diseases account for significant morbidity and mortality across the world. The study aims at establishing the epidemiological profile of gastrointestinal diseases in a Nigerian tertiary care center.
Methods: This is a descriptive retrospective study of all gastrointestinal specimens, submitted to the histopathology department of Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) for diagnosis. The age, sex, and histological diagnosis were extracted from the archives of the department. These were re-reclassified into diagnostic groups, analyzed using Excel spread sheet 2007 and summarized in tables.
Results: The study involves 570 patients (290 males and 280 females) with gastrointestinal tract (GIT) diseases within the age range of 10 days to 99 years, and of a mean age of 48.4 years. Congenital, inflammatory, benign neoplasms, malignant neoplasms and vascular diseases accounted for 1.6%, 77.5%, 2.6%, 18.1% and 0.18% of the cases respectively. These lesions were domiciled in the esophagus (1.4%), stomach (53.3%), small intestine (7.9%), appendix (10%), colorectum (25.4%) and anus (2%). The peak incidence corresponded to the 5th decade with 72.5% of cases affecting patients of 30-69 years. Malignant lesions were found in the esophagus (5.8%), stomach (14.6%), small intestine (4.9%), colorectum (72.8%) and anus (1.9%) and were mostly adenocarcinomas.
Conclusion: The study showed that GIT lesions were slightly more common among males. Majority of cases were inflammatory diseases (gastritis, appendicitis) with GIT cancers (colorectal and gastric cancer) being the next most common. The preponderance of GIT lesions among the productive age calls for action to ameliorate the trend. Preventive public enlightenment campaign on GIT cancer risk factors and population-based screening programmes especially for Helicobacter pylori infection and colorectal cancer is highly recommended.