Awareness of Pregnant Women Registered with Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi on the Risk Factors of Obstetric Emergencies

Obstetric emergencies are the leading cause of maternal and child mortality worldwide. According to WHO, about 15% of all pregnant women will develop obstetric emergencies that will require special skills to manage. A Nigerian woman has a 1 in 22 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum/post-abortion whereas most other developed countries have a risk of 1 in 4900. With figures so high, there is need for prompt response to arrest the problem. A good knowledge/awareness of pregnant women on the predisposing risk factors for occurrence of obstetric emergencies better equips them with appropriate steps to take in preventing the occurrence of such. In this study, the awareness of pregnant women on the risk factors of obstetric emergencies was assessed. Just about 37% of the women knew the concept of obstetric emergencies but when asked the specific types, a good number were aware of all the types. The most popular type was postpartum hemorrhage with 43.5% knowledge. The risk factors most recognized included poor antenatal care, age, infection, drugs and alcohol. 96% of the population however did not think they were at risk of developing any obstetric emergency.

A 50-Year-Old Woman with Left Foot Mass

A 50-year-old Nigerian woman presented to the infectious diseases clinic for evaluation of incidental left foot mass [...]

The Unknown Woman: Protecting Her Womanity as a Sine Qua Non to Preserving the Family Unit in Nigeria

The family unit is the basic unit of society and same cannot (literally speaking) be birthed without the woman or its foundation concretized without her nurture. However, it seems from happenings in the Nigerian society that the Nigerian woman is faced with some challenges that endangers her well-being, her role as a vessel of demographic growth and her indispensable nurturing function in the home. Many of these challenges appear to be caused by the masculine gender. Though and sadly so in some cases as would be shown anon, women themselves are the harbinger of some of these problems. Canvassing the emancipation of the woman has been the focus of many female gender rights activists and this paper aims to contribute to same vide an examination of the challenges that face the female folk in Nigeria and in extension the family unit with its negative effects on the larger society from a social cum legal perspective or discourse. The spectrum of this discourse will traverse issues like abandonment, effects of superstitious belief in witchcraft, death in the course of earning a living, break-up of the family unit due to meddlesomeness of third parties, sexual violence against women and alleged complicity of law enforcement agents in shielding its perpetrators and a host of other varied issues.

Rewriting the Nigerian Nation and Reimagining the Lesbian Nigerian Woman in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015)

This paper presents a revised paradigm of the postcolonial Nigerian nation through the exploration of the figure of the black lesbian in Nigeria. I argue that the reconceptualisation of Nigerian nationhood is enabled through the revision by Chinelo Okparanta in her debut novel Under the Udala Trees (2015) of subaltern and abject Nigerian womanhood carried out from a homoerotic or Afroqueer standpoint. The exploration of lesbian Nigerian woman(hood) from a literary stance clearly represents a valuable and subversive way of re-writing, re-constructing and re-conceptualising the postcolonial Nigerian nation so that othered subjectivities can also become part of the nation-building project. Okparanta, considered an Afrosporic and transcultural writer, interpellates the Nigerian nation in order to present us with post-abyssal configurations that transcend reductive and monolithic discourses. Drawing on the work of a wide array of scholars belonging to Postcolonial, Gender and Queer Studies —such as Neville Hoad, Ifi Amadiume, Lindsey Green-Simms, and Lee Edelman— I demonstrate how Okparanta’s novel can work as an example of resistance against hegemonic, heteronormative and Eurocentric representations of Africa.

Rectovaginal fistula: An early complication of radiotherapy in a sexagenarian with cervical cancer

A 62-year-old Nigerian woman was admitted on account of cervical carcinoma Stage IV and was requested to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Six weeks after commencing this treatment she starting passing feces involuntarily through the vagina. Imaging studies revealed a high sited, medium sized, and rectovaginal fistula (RVF). RVFs have been documented as a late complication of radiotherapy for any gynecological malignancy but it occurred earlier in this patient. A preliminary surgical procedure, a sigmoid-ostomy, was performed successfully and a definitive surgery, a sigmoido-rectal anastomosis, was planned to be done in 18 months after the diagnosis of the RVF but the patient died shortly after the first procedure. The present case indicates that a RVF can occur as an early complication of radiotherapy even when it presents with mild symptoms.

Pott’s disease with extensive bilateral psoas abscesses in a Nigerian woman: an unusual case

Bilateral psoas abscesses are uncommon in Pott’s disease. We describe a 28-year-old Nigerian woman with a 2-year history of constitutional symptoms and a 1-year history of bilateral paravertebral masses. She had received anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment in an interrupted manner. A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed T10–T12 spondylitis, wedge collapse and extensive bilateral psoas abscesses. Histology of the abscess wall was definitively diagnosed as soft tissue TB, and special staining for acid-fast bacilli was positive. She was successfully treated with anti-TB therapy and ultrasound-guided surgical drainage of 6 L of abscess fluid. Complicated cases of Pott’s disease may require multi-disciplinary interventions for optimal outcome.

A case report of haemolytic disease of the foetus and newborn caused by Alloantibody D and Jka in a Rhesus D negative Nigerian woman: Justification for the implementation of universal access to prophylaxis and evidenced-based best practices

A case report of a 38 years old ABO group A and Rhesus D negative multiparous, gravidae 8 and para 2, Nigerian woman who had a case of premarital miscarriage and who was not offered anti-D prophylaxis as part of her management. Lady went on to develop alloantibody D and Jka. Lady has had 7 further pregnancies post the miscarriage. The first child who is B Rhesus D positive is the only surviving child. The surviving child was delivered severely jaundiced and needed management post-delivery for haemolytic disease of the foetus and newborn (HDFN). Lady has had a history of a stillbirth. She was given a non-clinically indicated anti-D prophylaxis during the second pregnancy despite having been previously sensitized. The second baby died 3 months after delivery from complications of HDFN. She had had a further history of 5 miscarriages. She has had challenge with conception since 2010. Alloantibody testing confirms the presence alloantibody D and anti-Jka. Finding from this is a clear case of sub-optimal laboratory, obstetric and neonatal care offered particularly to pregnant women who are Rh D negative and those with alloantibodies in Nigeria. The Nigerian government will need to implement evidenced-based best practices; determination of alloantibody status of pregnant women during their first antenatal visit; provision of facilities for alloantibody identification, titration, quantification and feto maternal haemorrhage testing (FMH); implementation of a policy on universal access to anti-D prophylaxis for pregnant Rh D negative women who are not previously sensitized; provision of facilities required for the optimal intrauterine management of HDFN (foetal genotype testing, intrauterine transfusion, doppler ultrasound to diagnose anaemia inutero and provision of donor blood that meet the minimum requirements for intrauterine transfusion); determination of Rh D status of women who require a termination of pregnancy and provision of prophylactic anti-D for those found Rh D negative within 72 hours of procedure and the optimization of the knowledge of Medical Laboratory Scientist, Obstetricians, Neonatologist, Pharmacist and Traditional Birth Attendants in a bid to reduce the residual number of women who become sensitized and the number of preventable deaths of babies with HDFN.

Gastric adenomyoma: an uncommon cause of dyspepsia and a rare endoscopic finding.

Background: Gastric adenomyoma (GA) is a rare benign lesion comprising of ducts and glands embedded in smooth muscle stroma. Thirty-seven (37) cases of GA were identified until 1993, however, only 15 cases are said to have been reported from 1993 to 2016. Esophagogastroscopy has been widely used in evaluating GA. However, the diagnosis of GA remains exclusively histological. Case: We report a 26-year-old Nigerian woman who presented with recurrent dyspepsia with her endoscopic findings suggestive of GA. GA was confirmed by histology, and she was managed conservatively. Conclusion: This report will contribute to creating awareness of this uncommon condition and also reminding physicians in considering GA as a possible differential of dyspepsia. Keywords: gastric, adenomyoma, dyspepsia, endoscopy, Nigerian, woman