Surgical debulking of podoconiosis nodules and its impact on quality of life in Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In Ethiopia, severe lymphedema and acute dermato-lymphangio-adenitis (ADLA) of the legs as a consequence of podoconiosis affects approximately 1.5 million people. In some this condition may lead to woody-hard fibrotic nodules, which are resistant to conventional treatment. We present a series of patients who underwent surgical nodulectomy in a resource-limited setting and their outcome.

Methods

In two teaching hospitals, we offered surgical nodulectomies under local anaesthesia to patients with persisting significant fibrotic nodules due to podoconiosis. Excisions after nodulectomy were left to heal by secondary intention with compression bandaging. As outcome, we recorded time to re-epithelialization after surgery, change in number of ADLA episodes, change in qua

SUBMITTER: Enbiale W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7857577 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature