Prevalence of Otolaryngological diseases in Nigerians.

Background : To study the prevalence of Otolaryngological (ORL) diseases in a tertiary hospital.
Methods: Five hundred patients that were first attendee at the ORL clinic of the Obafemi Awolowo University teaching hospital Ile-Ife were randomly selected from the clinic lists. The age, sex, presenting complaints, and the diagnosis were noted. Analysis of the data were done using SPSS version 10.0
Results: The age ranges of ENT clinic attendee were 10 days - 95years with a mean age of 30.5 ± 22.7years. There were 315 males and l85 females with a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. Diseases of the ear was the most common 51.8% (n=259), nasal and paranasal sinuses diseases accounted for 26% (n=130), pharyngeal diseases was found in 10.6% (n=53), laryngeal disease accounted for 3% (n=15). Oral cavity lesions were seen in 1.4%. (n=7) and Head and Neck tumors were found in 7.2% (n=36) these were made up of malignant (n=30) and benign (n=6) tumors.
Conclusion: Ear diseases were the most in this work and oral cavity lesions being the least common. The peak age incidence was in the 0-9years. There is a need for manpower development in otological and paediatric otolaryngological surgery.