Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Management Options of Uterine Fibroids in a Nigerian Tertiary Institution

Background: Uterine fibroids are benign tumors of the smooth muscle and the connective tissue of the uterus affecting reproductive age women. Many treatment options for uterine fibroids abound. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of uterine fibroids, as well as their clinical presentation and surgical management options, with an emphasis on myomectomies at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH).”

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study of 406 women who had abdominal myomectomy over a period of 5 years from 1st January, 2016 to 31st December, 2020 at RSUTH, Port Harcourt. A structured proforma was designed and used to extract data from operating theatre registers and the hospital medical records. Data was entered and analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) IBM version 25.0 (Armonk, NY).

Results: A total of 1682 gynaecological surgeries were done over the study period. Four hundred and sixty eight (468) were for uterine fibroids giving a prevalence of 27.8%. Of this 468 surgeries, 406 (86.7%) were abdominal myomectomies while 13.3% had abdominal hysterectomies. Mean age was 36.63 + 5.09 years. Range of parity was Para 0–3. Most were married, aged 30-35 years, nulliparous and had tertiary level of education. Menorrhagia was the most common presenting symptom and most of the symptoms had lasted for 1-3 years.

Conclusion: Uterine fibroid is one of the most frequent gynaecological problems in our environment and prevalence rate of 27.8% is very high. Surgical treatment remains the main treatment option.