Brain tumours at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi

To study the frequency, mode of presentation and outcome following treatment of gliomas in patients treated at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

A retrospective study.

Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, between January 1984 and December 1993.

Two hundred and fourteen patients with intracranial tumours who underwent brain surgery at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Two hundred and fourteen histologically confirmed intracranial tumours were seen at the Kenyatta National Hospital between 1984 and 1993. Ninety seven (45.8%) of these were gliomas of which eighty one were astrocytomas, ten ependymomas and six oligodendrogliomas. Meningiomas were the next common tumours (34.4%). Gliomas affected the young age group most, with the peak in the first decade of life. Males were most affected with a male to female ratio of 1.4:1. Features of increased intracranial pressure were the commonest mode of clinical presentation. The parietal region was the commonest site of intracranial gliomas (37.5%). Surgery and radiotherapy were the main forms of definitive/palliative treatment given. The two year survival rate was 25%, for patients who had undergone total tumour excision with or without radiotherapy. Tumour debulking only without post-operative radiotherapy was associated with a seven per cent two year survival rate.

Gliomas were the commonest intracranial tumours (45.8%) seen at the Kenyatta National Hospital over a ten year period (1983-1994). Radical surgery with or without radiotherapy was associated with a 25% two year survival rate, debulking and radiotherapy with 20% two year survival, biopsy and radiotherapy with 20% two year survival and debulking only with a seven per cent two-year survival. Gliomas are less commonly seen in the Kenyan African in comparison with rates of occurrence in the Caucasian race.