A Systematic Review of Non-Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries in Sub-Saharan Africa and a Proposed Diagnostic Algorithm for Resource-Limited Settings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Non-traumatic myelopathy is common in Africa and there are geographic differences in etiology. Clinical management is challenging due to the broad differential diagnosis and the lack of diagnostics. The objective of this systematic review is to determine the most common etiologies of non-traumatic myelopathy in sub-Saharan Africa to inform a regionally appropriate diagnostic algorithm.

Methods

We conducted a systemic review searching Medline and Embase databases using the following search terms: "Non traumatic spinal cord injury" or "myelopathy" with limitations to epidemiology or etiologies and Sub-Saharan Africa. We described the frequencies of the different etiologies and proposed a diagnostic algorithm based on the most common diagnoses.

Results

We iden

SUBMITTER: Musubire AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5770645 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature