Practice Of Neurosurgery In Lubumbashi: Case Of Medpark Clinic In Lubumbashi (DR Congo).

Abstract

Introduction: The city of Lubumbashi has experienced a very significant advance in the art of healing over the past two decades. Several specialties formerly practiced having disappeared during the 1990s, have seen the days again. Neurosurgery is no exception. Demanding discipline, including pre-op, per-op and post-op requires an adequate technical platform for its exercise. Our work focuses on the practice of neurosurgery at the Medpark Clinic, which has existed for three years in Lubumbashi. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of 89 patients operated on in neurosurgery at Medpark Clinic over a period from March 2017 to November 2019, which consisted of an epidemiological evaluation and a presentation of the statistical series. Results: A total of 89 patients were operated on during this study period. The median age was 54 years, and the sex ratio of 3M/1F. The distribution according to the pathologies makes it possible to find a proportion of 57 (64%) cases of neurodegenerative pathologies, 14 (16%) cases of neurotrauma, 9 (10%) cases of malformative pathologies, 3 (3%) cases of neurovascular pathologies, 3 (3%) cases of infectious pathologies and 3 (3%) cases of tumor pathologies. Postoperative evolution was favorable in 91% of cases. In addition, as major complications, there were 1 (1%) death, 3 (3%) cases of postoperative infection, 1 (1%) case of compressive pneumoencephaly and 1 (1%) of dural fistula. Conclusion: The practice of neurosurgery in Lubumbashi has experienced significant growth in recent years following the improvement of the technical platform. This progress is more marked in spine surgery. However, much remains to be done to consider major interventions such as skull base surgery, endoscopy and even vascular neurosurgery.