Metastatic tumours of the brain and its enveloping structures in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Fifty-two cases of secondary tumours of the brain and its enveloping structures which were encountered at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria bewteen January 1965 and December 1970 are reported. All lesions were hisologically verified, forty-six at autopsy and the remaining six from biopsy specimens of the skull deposits. There were forty females and twelve males; 77% of the subjects were in the third, fourth and fifth decades of life, 15% in the sixth and seventh, and the rest in first two decades.

Gliomas of the brain among Nigerians.

At the UCH in Ibadan, Nigeria, we have seen forty-three patients with verified neoplasms of the brain comprising most histologic types of the glioma/paraglioma series. The astrogliomas formed the largest group, followed by the pinealomas in 16.27% and the medulloblastomas and ependymomas, each occurring in 13.

The neurology of metastatic chorion carcinoma.

Although chorion carcinoma of the uterus is the seventh commonest in the comparative frequency of malignant tumours seen at the Cancer Registry of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria (being exceeded in order of commoness by the reticuloendothelial tumours, carcinoma of the cervix, liver, breast, stomach and ovary), it is the most frequent source of tumour deposit of the brain in this hospital. Between 1960 and 1969, 197 Nigerians with chorion cancer of the uterus were admitted to UCH; in twenty-five of them the nervous system was involved during the course of their disease. The neurological involvement presented as acute cerebrovascular accident in fourteen, encephalitis in five; as primary intracranial space-occupying lesion in three cases and in one patient, as cord compression.

Tumours within the spinal column.

Sixty-six cases of mass lesions compressing the spinal cord are presented. The masses were neoplastic in 86.36% of the cases.

Subgaleal hematoma in head injuries.

We have carried out clinical, radiological and some hematological evaluation of post-traumatic subgaleal hematoma in 55 Nigerians who were treated for head injuries at the he University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1970. Most hematomas spontaneously resolved within four weeks of the injury, so that masterly inactivity should be the first line of treatment for this entity.