The Central African journal of medicine
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Negative appendicectomy: evaluation of ultrasonography and Alvarado score.
High negative appendicectomy rates are no longer acceptable with improvements in imaging techniques and clinical prediction rules. The use of ultrasound and CT scan in addition to clinical assessment and blood investigations has greatly reduced the negative appendicectomy rate to less than 10%. ⋯ The negative appendicectomy rate (16.5%) at the two University Teaching Hospitals in Harare is relatively high when compared with modern trends. Alvarado score had a high sensitivity (95.3%) and predictive value (90.3%). Ultrasound scan had a high sensitivity (89.5%) and a relatively low predictive value (77.2%) in diagnosing acute appendicitis. Regular use of these assessment modalities should contribute substantially to reduction in the negative appendicectomy rate in our practice.
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Multicenter Study
Injury registration in a developing country. A study based on patients' records from four hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
A recent study conducted in some parts of Tanzania has revealed that injuries rank as the third major leading cause of death among the adult population only after tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Critical to any injury prevention activities is a reliable surveillance system. Such a system may for instance be based on hospital registration of injuries. ⋯ There is a need for improving the way injuries are recorded in hospitals. Hospitals' records could provide a useful tool for monitoring injury preventive activities in developing countries like Tanzania.