Audit of Otorhinolaryngological, head and neck emergency in a tertiary health care centre in a sub Saharan Africa

Background: Ear, nose and throat, head and neck emergency are very common with low levels of awareness. Early diagnosis and treatment lead to good outcome with low morbidity and mortality. This study aimed at determining prevalence, socio-demographic features, types, Comorbid illnesses and management of otorhinolaryngological emergency in our centre. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of the total number of ENT patients referred to Ear, Nose and throat department of Ekiti state university teaching hospital Ado Ekiti between July 2016 and June 2018. The clinical records of all the patients that have complete data were reviewed. All the data obtained were collated and analysed using SPSS version 18.0. Results: Prevalence of emergency Otorhinolaryngological cases in this study was 18.4%.There were 62.2% males with male to female ratio of 1.5:1. There were urban dwellers in 61.2%. The main type of otorhinolaryngology emergency was 55.8% foreign body (Ear, Nose and Throat), 19.0% infection/inflammation and 13.4% trauma/road traffic accident. The most common otorhinolaryngology foreign body distributions were ear, nose and throat in 28.8%, 23.4% and 3.6% respectively. Infection/inflammation occurred in the 6.4% ear, 5.9% nose and 7.5% throat. The anatomical distributions of otorhinolaryngology emergency were 49.9% in the ear, 31.9% in the nose and 15.9% in the throat. The most frequent clinical features of the otorhinolaryngology emergency in this study were pain in 60.7% followed by foreign body (ENT) in 54.5%. Major sources of referral were from self-reporting in 33.9% and casualty officers in 22.9%. Modes of otorhinolaryngological emergency patient’s presentation were ENT outpatient clinic in 77.6%, accident and emergency in 17.5% and hospital ward in 4.9%. Pre-hospital treatment occurred in 44.2% of the studied patients. 50.9% of the patients had conservative/medical treatment. Foreign body removal was done in 52.2% patients. Nasal packing were done in 6.9% while incision and drainage were performed in 5.4%. Conclusion: Otorhinolaryngological emergency is common in various forms in our practice. This is associated with complications at presentation. Early referral is advised.