Ectopic pregnancy in Nigeria's federal capital territory: a six year review

Ectopic pregnancy is a major public health issue and remains a major challenge to the reproductive Performance of women worldwide. The incidence and management approach to ectopic pregnancy over the past few decades has been revolutionized with various modalities of treatment currently in practice. The objective of the study was to determine the incidence, mode of presentation, diagnosis and treatment of ectopic pregnancy at the University of Abuja teaching hospital, Gwagwalada.

This was a retrospective study of ectopic pregnancy cases managed in the hospital between January 2001 and December 2006.

There were 186 ectopic pregnancies out of 6,865 deliveries giving an overall incidence of 2.7%. Ectopic pregnancy accounted for 6.86% of all gynaecological admissions. Presentation was mainly as acute emergencies. Majority, 83.1% had ruptured while 16.9% were unruptured at presentation. The commonest finding on physical examination was abdominal tenderness which occurred in 90.4% of cases. Diagnosis was made solely on clinical findings in 36.7%. All cases had laparotomy and 95.0% had radical tubal surgery.

Ectopic pregnancy is still a major health problem amongst women of reproductive age group presenting in the gynaecological unit of the University of Abuja teaching hospital. Laparotomy for salpingectomy is the mainstay of treatment as the patients present acutely, haemodynamically unstable and unfit for conservative management.