A review of complete hydatidiform moles in Ghana

Abstract

All cases of complete hydatidiform moles received over a period of 29 years from a cross-section of hospitals in Ghana were retrieved and studied at the Pathology Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KI3TI-I), Accra to establish the crude prevalence rate for the disease. A total of 244 cases of complete hydatidiform moles were obtained with an age range of 15·52 years. The mean age was 31 years and peak age was in the 25-29 age group. Age demographics were obtained from the histopathology laboratory request forms. Patients at the extremes of reproductive age(<20 and >40) formed 21.9% of cases. The crude prevalence rate assessed in the KI3TJ-I was 0.70/1000 deliveries. The low number of reported cases was largely the result of gross under-reporting. Most specimens obtained from evacuation of uterus for incomplete abortions were not sent for histological examination. However, the crude prevalence rate for KDTH was still higher than that for advanced countries and comparable to that of Enugu/Nigeria (0.87/1000 deliveries) and Kampala/Uganda ( 1.03/ 1000 deliveries), which have similar high rates of fertility, pregnancies at extremes of age and level of maternal care delivery systems as Ghana. The prevalence of hydatidiform moles remains a useful index of maternal health delivery system, and a national register of hydatidiform moles may improve the rate of reporting cases and be a useful tool in a prospective study to define other epidemiological features of the disease in Ghana.