The pelvic ultrasound findings among patients presenting with lower abdominal pain at gynaecology clinics at Muhimbili National Hospital

Background In women of reproductive age group pain in the lower abdomen can be due to various reasons and can be attributed to a number of underlying illnesses. Lower abdominal pain is not only caused by simple problems like normal menstrual period; however, it could be a sign of another more serious illness. Acute and chronic pelvic pain accounts for almost 50% of all gynecologic outpatient visits around the world. Chronic pelvic pain is a common and disabling condition that is defined as non-menstrual pain of at least 6 months duration. The prevalence of chronic pelvic pain is 15% in women between the ages of 18 and 50 years. Chronic pelvic pain accounts for 10%–40% of all gynecologic outpatient visits. In the United States, 35% of diagnostic laparoscopies and 15% of all hysterectomies are performed because of chronic pelvic pain. Ultrasound is an important tool of investigation where clinician suspects there is a pathology causing lower abdominal pain or to rule out other several differential diagnosis. An early detection of the pathology can take an important role in the management of the disease. Objectives To determine the pelvic ultrasound findings in the patients presenting with lower abdominal pain at GOPD, MNH, from July – December 2012. Methodology: This was a hospital based descriptive cross sectional study whereby a convenient sample of 300 patients was obtained from those patients between 14 – 49 years of age with lower abdominal pain who were referred to undergo ultrasound examination by the gynecologist from GOPD, MNH, Dar es salaam, Tanzania from July to October 2012 .The choice of investigation was pelvic ultrasound. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 16. vii Result A total of 300 patients participated in this study. The most frequent ultrasound findings were uterine fibroid, ovarian cyst, pelvic inflammatory disease, carcinoma of cervix and tubo-ovarian mass etc. Conclusion In conclusion, abdominal ultrasound in patients with lower abdominal pain attending GOPD at MNH revealed a significant prevalence (85.7%) of abnormalities like uterine fibroid, ovarian cyst, pelvic inflammatory disease, carcinoma of cervix, tubo-ovarian mass. Recommendations A mandatory ultrasonography examination should be done for all the patients presenting with lower abdominal pain attending the first day of gynecology clinic at MNH. Similar studies should be done to correlate ultrasonograpy findings with post laparatomy or laparoscopy findings. Community based similar studies should be done on all women with even larger sample siz