Cerebravascular accident (CVA) is one of the major causes of sudden death. In addition it has a high morbidity being responsible for many patients with incapacitating neurological deficit. Until recently there was scanty information on CVA in Africans, and some held that cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) like coronary artery disease is rare in the African. Humphries (1957) for instance states that in 14 years work among natives of South, Central and West Africa, he saw few instance of CVD either due to hemorrhage or infarction. It has since been shown that CVD is not uncommon in the Bantus in South and East Africa (LAURE and WOODS, 1958, STRONG et al., 1959, WALKER, 1963), and in the Senegalese in West Africa ( COLLOMB et al., 1966). It is important to establish the pattern of CVD in various African races and the difference, if any, from that described in the more developed countries. This paper described in the more developed countries. This paper describes our experience and findings in Nigerian Patients seen at the University Colege Hospital, ( UCH) Ibadan, between 1957 and 1968. The UCH is a 500- bed hospital of the University of Ibadan. It is situated in Ibadan, which has a population of 750,000 – the largest Negro city in the world, The majority of the inhabitants of Ibadan is formed by the Yorubas, who also constittute about 90 per cent of the patients seen in the hospital. The rest of the patients come from all parts of Nigeria.
CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENTS IN NIGERIANS: A STUDY OF 348 PATIENTS
Authors
DR. B.O. OSUNTOKUN
Consultant Physician and Senior lecturer in Neurology,
Department of Psychiatry and Neurology
PROFESSOR E.L. ODEKU
Consultant Neurosurgeon and Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgery
and
DR. R.B.A. ADELOYE
Consultant Neurosurgeon and Lecturer,
Department of Surgery