Neurological diseases at the Pediatric Neurology Clinic in a semi-urban Nigerian tertiary hospital

Abstract

Neurological diseases in children may be associated with mortality and long-term morbidity when they recover from acute ailments. The pattern of neurological disorders in an outpatient service may highlight the burden of these diseases. The objective of the present study is to describe the pattern of neurological disorders at the Pediatric Neurology Clinic of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, Nigeria. A retrospective analysis of consecutive patients in a Pediatric Neurology Clinic of OOUTH, from 1st January 2011 till 31st December 2014, was carried out. A total of 4,476 patients attended the pediatric outpatient unit. Of these, 433 children had neurological disorders with a prevalence of 9.67%. The most frequent pediatric neurological disorders included seizure disorders (37.7%), cerebral palsy (37.7%), and central nervous system infections with complications (6.2%). The subjects with cerebral palsy were the youngest, while the subjects with seizures were the oldest. This study emphasizes that neurological disease contributes substantially to childhood morbidity in a semi-urban African tertiary hospital.