[Rheumatic diseases profile of 13517 West African patients]

To determine the patterns of rheumatic diseases in patients attending the rheumatology unit of the Lomé Tokoin teaching hospital.

Medical records of patients seen over 16 years period were studied transversally. All the patients suffering of rheumatic disease were including in the study.

13517 patients (7755 women, 5762 men) had suffered of rheumatic disease. Degenerative spinal involvement, n= 6319 (46.47%); tendinitis, n= 1625 (12.02 %); knee osteoarthritis, n= 1084 (8.02 %); chronic inflammatory rheumatism and connective tissue disorders, n= 626 (4.64 %); infectious pathology, n= 376 (2.78 %) and hip involvement, n= 322 (2.39 %) were the diseases more observed. The features of degenerative spinal disease included low back pain (n= 2325), lumbar and radicular pain suggestive of disc herniation (n= 2035) and lumbar spinal stenosis (n= 709). More women (n= 874) than men (n= 210) had suffered of knee osteoarthritis. Spondylarthropathies (n=93), rheumatoid arthritis (n= 62), dermatomyositis and polymyositis (n= 13) were the main forms of chronic inflammatory rheumatism and connective tissue disorders. The infection was localized in spine for 191 patients and in other bone and joints for the 185 others. The cause of infection was likely Koch bacillus for 178 patients and trivial germs for the 198 others. Necrosis of the femoral head (n= 89) had been the main form of hip involvement.

This study shows the high variety of rheumatism diseases in Black Africa;