Surgical experience in the management of multiple neurofibromatosis in Nigerians

Thirty patients with neurofibromatosis were treated by the Burns and Plastic Unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital during a seven year period from December, 1979 to December, 1986. Their ages ranged from 3 to 53 years. The indications for surgery were impairment of function in 66.6 percent, cosmetics in 20 percent, ulceration in 6.7 percent and malignancy in 6.7 percent. There was profuse bleeding during and after surgery in virtually all patients. Post operative infection was common and wound healing was generally poor. However, hypertrophic scars and keloid formation were not observed in spite of the poor wound healing and closure of some of the wounds under tension.