Epidemiology of Renal Trauma at the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Renal trauma is the most common type of genitourinary trauma, often occurring in the context of polytrauma, and can be severe, putting the patient’s life at risk due to hemorrhagic or infectious complications. Management has become more conservative over the past twenty years, thanks to advances in minimally invasive surgery and interventional radiologyn. Methodology : We conducted a cross-sectional observational study with retrospective recruitment at the Urology Department of the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital over a period of 5 years. All patients diagnosed with renal trauma and managed at the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital were included, regardless of age, sex, or treatment methods used. Results: Most patients were between 20 and 39 years old (60.0%) and male (68.0%), with a sex ratio of 2.13. Lumbar pain was present in all cases (100.0%), hematuria in 52.0% of cases. Factors of decompensation were found in 44.0% of patients, dominated by hemodynamic instability in 44.0% and fever in 12.0% of cases. Computed tomography, the most commonly performed radiological examination, was found in 84% of cases, with 32.0% in association with ultrasound. Management was dominated by non-operative treatment (NOT) at 56.0%. Surgical management (nephrectomy) was frequent in 44.0% of cases (n = 11). Conclusion : Given the favorable evolution in our patients who underwent simple surveillance and taking into account the good results in the literature regarding therapeutic abstention in major closed renal trauma, we believe that in the absence of associated intra-abdominal lesions or hemodynamic instability, simple surveillance remains the therapeutic method of choice.