A retrospective single-centre study on the histological profile of brain and spine tumours at a tertiary hospital in Ghana.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the patient demographics, clinical presentation and histological subtypes of central nervous system (CNS) tumours in a tertiary facility.

Design: Retrospective review of all the histopathological and medical records available for patients with tumours of the CNS operated on.

Setting: Neurosurgical Unit, Department of Surgery, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

Participants: All adult and paediatric patients with histopathologically diagnosed CNS tumours.

Main outcome measures: Frequency of histopathological subtypes of CNS tumours.

Results: This study of 338 patients with CNS tumours showed a slight female predominance (183 females, 155 males). The mean age was 38.1 years. Brain tumours were more common (290 cases) than spinal tumours (48 cases), with symptoms like headaches (44.44%) and visual disturbance (24.31%) prevalent in brain cases, and paraparesis (35.42%) and low back pain (16.67%) in spinal cases. Certain symptoms were strongly indicative of specific tumour types, such as seizures (OR: 3.3, CI: 1.6 - 6.9, p = 0.005) with meningiomas and visual disturbances with sellar tumours (OR: 6.7, CI: 3.6 - 12.9, p<0.001). Most tumours were low-grade (78.69%). Meningiomas were the most common (33.14%), particularly meningothelial (38.39%). Gliomas, glioneuronal, and neuronal tumours were next in prevalence (28.40%), followed by sellar tumours (18.93%). Astrocytomas (60.42%) were the predominant glioma subtype.

Conclusion: Low-grade tumours predominate in our setting. It is prudent that we channel efforts towards prompt diagnosis and treatment of such cases.

Funding: None declared.