An Audit of Practice of Neurosurgery at the Klerksdorp Tshepong Hospital, North West Province

Abstract

It is difficult to establish a neurosurgery center in a low-income country, particularly in rural Africa. Africa's neurosurgical workforce falls well short of global standards. The current study details the Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital Complex (KTHC) neurosurgery unit's five-year audit, which ran from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021, at the KTHC in the Northwest province. In all, 1016 patients were treated by the unit during the study period. Out of the 1016 patients, 492 underwent neurosurgical interventions of which 404 were adult patients and 88 were paediatric patients. Of the 492 procedures linked to adults, 45,52% (n = 224) had to do with trauma, 12,60% (n = 62) with spine related conditions, 11,99% (n = 59) with infectious causes, 9,55% (n = 47) with tumours, and 2,43% (n = 12) with vascular disorders. Out of the 88 paediatric related procedures, 68 (or 77,27% of the total) were related to congenital problems, 11 (12,50%) to trauma, and 9 (10,22%) to infection. Overall, most procedures (n = 235) were due to trauma, congenital problems (n = 68), spine (n = 62), infections (n = 68), tumours (n = 47), and vascular conditions (n = 12). Of the total, 59,7% (n=292) were related to emergency procedures. The KTHC neurosurgical unit saw 8884 patients during the course of the study.