Pregnancy in non-palliated functionally single ventricle: challenges of management in resource-poor settings.

Women with complex functionally univentricular hearts rarely survive into adulthood without corrective or palliative surgery. Reports of pregnancy outcome in this group of patients in resource-poor settings are sparse. We report a case of unrepaired pulmonary atresia ventricular septal defect (VSD) with major aorto-pulmonary collateral arteries (MAPCA) who survived into adulthood and was able to complete a successful pregnancy in a resource-poor country.

Conotruncal Heart Defect Repair in Sub-Saharan Africa: Remarkable Outcomes Despite Poor Access to Treatment.

Background: The outcome of children born with conotruncal heart defects may serve as an indication of the status of pediatric cardiac care in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study was undertaken to determine the outcome of children born with conotruncal anomalies in SSA, regarding access to treatment and outcomes of surgical intervention.

Methods: From our institution in Ghana, we retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of surgery, in the two-year period from June 2013 to May 2015.

Hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass without exchange transfusion in sickle-cell patients: a matched-pair analysis.

Objectives: Sickle-cell patients undergo cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery in our institution without perioperative exchange transfusion. We sought to determine whether this protocol increased mortality or important sickle-cell-related complications.

Methods: We adopted a 1:1 matched-pair case-control methodology to evaluate the safety of our protocol.

The changing epidemiology of esophageal cancer in sub-Saharan Africa - the case of Ghana.

Introduction: Esophageal cancer portends a grim prognosis. Most patients present with incurable disease. Scanty epidemiologic data on the disease has contributed to its low priority on the national.

Colopharyngoplasty for intractable caustic pharyngoesophageal strictures in an indigenous African community--adverse impact of concomitant tracheostomy on outcome.

Objectives: Surgical management of caustic strictures of the upper digestive tract poses difficult challenges. This is because reconstruction above the cricopharyngeal junction interferes with the mechanisms of swallowing and respiration. This report reviews the outcome of colopharyngeal reconstruction of severe diffuse pharyngoesophageal caustic strictures in an indigenous African community.