Review

Review of Orofacial Biopsies at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Alexander Acheampong Oti¹*, Rita Larsen-Reindorf¹, Robert Nii Lame Laime¹ and Peter Donkor²

¹Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana.

²Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

*Corresponding author. Email: aotiacheampong@yahoo.com

Received 23 February, 2013; Accepted 24 March, 2013

Abstract

There is general scarcity of information on the prevalence of orofacial lesions in Ghana. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of such lesions and compare the findings with that of other studies to guide us in our public education programmes. The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of orofacial lesions as well as their distribution according to age, sex, and anatomic location. This was a retrospective study of all histopathology reports seen at maxillofacial unit of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital from January 1999 to October 2010 inclusive. Data on diagnosis, age, sex and anatomic location were collected. A total of 567 histopathology reports were evaluated. Conditions diagnosed included odontogenic cyst 37(6.5%), non-odontogenic cyst 42(7.4%), benign fibrosseous lesions 32(5.4%), odontogenic tumours 88(16%), non-odontogenic tumours 247(43.4%) and salivary gland tumours 121(21.3%). Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenoid cystic carcinoma were the most common non odontogenic and salivary gland malignancies respectively. SCC affected males at earlier age as compared with females. Warthin’s tumour, which is considered to be rare from most African studies, was observed in this study.

Keywords:  Biopsy, Orofacial, Malignancy, Benign.