[Rheumatic diseases in hospital outpatients in Lome (Togo)]

The aim of this study was to point out the different kinds of diseases in patients attending the rheumatology unit of Lomé Hospital from October 1989 to October 1990. Eight hundred and forty three patients (456 females, 387 males) were examined. The main results of this study are as follows: degenerative spinal involvement: 39.6%; tendinitis: 13.8%; knee osteoarthritis: 12.7%; hip osteoarthritis: 0.7%; hip involvement associated with hemoglobinopathies: 1.3%; gout: 5%; spondylarthropathies/0.8%; asymmetrical oligoarthritis: 0.6%; rheumatoid arthritis/0.2%; chronic polyarthritis without joint destruction: 1.2%; osteoporosis: 0.1%; connective tissue diseases: 0.7%. The scarcity of hip osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and osteoporosis is in accordance with previous studies. The same is true of the high frequency of degenerative spinal involvement and knee osteoarthritis. However, the high frequency of gout and the non exceptional character of spondylarthropathies are in contrast with previous studies effected in Black Africa.