Pattern of paediatric neurological disorders in port harcourt, Nigeria.

Abstract

A total of 35,473 patients were seen in the Paediatric unit. Of these 2,379 had neurological disorders. This gave a prevalence of 6.7% of Paediatric neurological disorders. There were 1,431 males and 948 females (male: female ratio of 1.51:1.0). The age ranged from 3 months to 15 years. The age group 1->5 years accounted for the most affected age group constituting 87.7%. The most frequent Paediatric neurological disorders were epilepsy (24.6%), cerebral palsy (15.4%), and central nervous system infections (9.5%). CONCLUSIONSRECOMMENDATION: Wide spectrum of neurological disorders occur in our environment. The high incidence of epilepsy and cerebral palsy suggests that effort should be geared towards educating the populace about early diagnosis and prompt management.