Traditional bone setting in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Traditional bone setting is an age long practice in African societies. It has flourished in spite of the advent of orthodox fracture management in Nigeria and many other African countries. However, complications emanating from their practice have led to suggestions on the need for intervention and control of their activities.

We aim to document the current practice of the traditional bone setting in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria.

A structured interview of two traditional bone setters in the surrounding villages of the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria was carried out. In addition we visited their 'clinics' to make on the spot assessment of their practice.

The two practitioners ('A' and 'B') interviewed were both males who inherited the trade from their parents. Practitioner 'A' has both out-patient and in-patient practices while 'B' only treat outpatients in addition to home visits. Basically, both practitioners have similar method of injury treatment which consists of; massaging/manipulation to reduce fractures/dislocations after which the area may be scarified before application of an herbal mixture (Igbudia) followed with bandaging and splinting.

From this study, it is obvious that the current practice of traditional bone setters in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria is still crude and far from ideal. There is thus need for a review of their practice with reorientation of their psyche, training, standardisation, certification/licencing, legislative control and eventual integration atthe primary health care level.