First Consultation in Nephrology: Case of the Point G University Hospital (Bamako-Mali)

Abstract

Understanding the first consultation of people with kidney disease seems to us to be essential to understand the attitude of the referring physician and the nephrologist. The aim was to find out to whom a patient with kidney disease should be referred in the first instance and for what reason? Hence the evaluation of the prevalence of the first consultation in the nephrology department of the Point G University Hospital in Bamako was made. Patients and Method: This was a prospective descriptive study which took place from July 2017 to June 2018 in the nephrology department of the Point G University Hospital. The study included all patients who came to the nephrology department for the first time during this period. Results: Between July 2017 and June 2018 at the nephrology and haemodialysis service of the G point University Hospital, we retained 643 out of 1031 patients who came for their first consultation, i.e. 62.36%. There were many patients aged between 41 and 50 years. The average age was 42.6 ± 5.03 years with extremes of 30 and 82 years. The sex ratio (M/F) was in favor of males, 1.14. The majority of patients were referred/evacuated from the referral health centres (57.6%). The majority of patients were referred/evacuated by general practitioners (70.5%). Cardiologists were the main specialists to refer/evacuate patients (21.2%). The main reasons for consultation that led to the first diagnostic hypotheses were: arterial hypertension for vascular nephropathy, glomerular syndrome for glomerular nephropathy, acute uraemia syndrome for acute renal failure, hydronephrosis for obstructive uropathy and finally diabetes for diabetic nephropathy. Conclusion: The first consultation in nephrology remains an important step in the management of renal disease, especially when the referral is an emergency. The percentage of referrals is dominated by general practitioners.