By: Felix Ikpotor
Patients especially women who come down with chest and abdominal pains have been advised not to assume that they are suffering from ulcer until an endoscopic test is carried out on them.
This was the advise of specialists at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, during the monthly ground rounds of the hospital.
They said chest and abdominal pains could also be from stomach cancer or ovarian malignancy.
The presentation which was done by the Cardio-Thoracic and Gyneaoncology units of the hospital on the management of a patient with infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysm co-existing with huge ovarian mass that required two high-end surgeries by both units, called for good health seeking behaviour amongst the populace for early detection and treatment of diseases.
Making their presentations, Professor Nyengidiki Kennedy, a Gyneaoncologist and Dr Amadi Christian, a Cardio-Vascular Surgeon both of the hospital, said early presentation of ailments increases the survival chances of the patients.
Dr. Christian said: “Nobody should say he or she has an ulcer without making a diagnoses. It’s not enough you go to hospital and a doctor tells you that you have ulcer”.
He added: “If you take the initial treatment and it doesn’t resolve, try to meet a specialist or a gastroenterologist to do an endoscopy and it’s only when they see signs that points to ulcer that you can say the patient has ulcer.
He emphasized that, “Sometimes somebody may have cancer of the stomach and he’s working around thinking he has ulcer and would be taking drugs continuously and you see the person dying from that cancer and when it’s become very bad that the person would now go to the hospital and then this test would be done and at that stage not much could be done”.
He noted that some persons may come down with aortic aneurysm without knowing advising persons with abnormal symptoms on their bodies to visit their healthcare providers for advice.
“For aortic aneurysm, somebody may have it and not know about it and somebody may have it and come down with symptoms especially abdominal pain and the patient can also come down with ulcer in the leg.
“So what we advice usually is to try to look at some of those things that predisposes to the aneurysm and prevent them and this condition has to do with the blood vessels becoming bigger than normal which can make it to suddenly rupture,” he said.
To prevent the ailment, Dr. Christian said persons with hypertension should be properly treated to ensure that the blood pressure is not too high while persons with genetic predispositions should also be watchful and not wait until complications occur before seeking medical help.
On his part, Professor Nyengidiki said ovarian cancer could also mimick ulcer symptoms, urging for proper diagnoses before treatment.
“When people have chest pain they believe it’s ulcer. There are certain specific steps that ought to be taken by the patient to know it’s ulcer.
“Now the other end of the spectrum is that certain things look like ulcer pain, they do not necessarily mean that the patient has ulcer, ovarian malignancy has non specific symptoms meaning that they may have pains that could mimick ulcer which may actually not be ulcer,” he stated.
He noted that ovarian cancer can be cured if patients present themselves early for treatment, declaring that the hospital has the capacity to handle such cases.
“Ovarian cancer is not a death sentence. If they have good health seeking behavior, if they have signs not normal, they should see their healthcare providers for evaluation and they would be able to identify the cancers early and offer treatment.
“For stage one ovarian cancer, five years survival is almost 90 percent which means that if we have 100 women who have cancer of the ovary, 90 of them would be alive in five years and UPTH has the capacity to provide cure for such cases,” he said.
He noted further that UPTH has the capacity to handle complex and high-end cases that would require people traveling abroad, while urging healthcare seekers to take advantage and present themselves early for treatment.
Addressing journalist shortly after the presentation, the Chairman Medical Advisory Council , CMAC, of the hospital, Professor Datonye Alasia said the presentation has revealed the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration in treatment of complex cases which he said the management of the hospital encourages.
He called on other healthcare facilities to do same saying it is more economical to both patient and the institution.
Professor Alasia emphasized that the hospital is delivering high-end services and called on the healthcare-seeking populace to take advantage of their services.
