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African Health Sciences, Vol. 10, No. 1, March, 2010, pp. 1 Editor's Choice James K Tumwine Editor in Chief, African Health Sciences Code Number: hs10001 It is my pleasure to introduce this March 2010 edition of African Health Sciences. In this issue we bring you papers that focus largely on surgery and obstetrics related topics. In a sense this makes this particular issue unique in that it is the first time we have an issue whose main focus is in the surgical and obstetric domain. Thus Nigerian researchers report on trace elements and vitamin E among patients with prostate cancer in Ibadan. They showed that serum selenium, zinc and vitamin A were very low. They hypothesize that deficiency of these trace elements might have a role to play in the development of prostate cancer1. In a similar study, Usoro and others report results of their study of calcium, phosphates, alkaline and acid phosphatase among breast cancer patients. Not surprisingly calcium and phosphatases were elevated. These are important findings with critical implications for monitoring progress and disease progression2. The next article by Salako et al3 reports 26 cases of testicular and par-testicular tumours in south western Nigeria. The rest of the articles are on diverse subject such as: blood loss in femoral fracture surgery4, factors associated with low back pain5, antenatal determinants of oro-facial clefts6. Adeyamo describes overweight and obesity among patients attending a Nigerian oral surgical clinic7, while Adamu describes the waiting time for emergency surgery in Zaria8. Onakopya studied ophthalmic admissions in a tertiary hospital, and found that cataract, trauma, and glaucoma were the leading reason for admission9. While studies on cervical cancer are becoming fairly frequent, integrating screening and genital tract infection screening have not been reported often from East Africa. Edwin Were and colleagues from Kenya, conclude that integration of cervical cancer screening into MCH-FP programmes is feasible10. Uche-Nwachi and others studied in anemia in pregnancy in Trinidad and Tobago11. They found that almost one in every six pregnant women had anemia. They call for specific interventions to addresses the problem. Keeping the theme of women's health, Ajenifuja and colleagues studied post partum heamorrahge in a hospital in Nigeria12. The commonest (78.6%) cause was retained products, of conception due mismanagement of the third stage of labour. Kerrie and others from Uganda report on referral practices and perceived barriers to timely obstetric care among TBA s in Uganda. They conclude that training of traditional birth attendants and collaboration between 'biomedical and medical staff'13. Practice points Under this topic we have included two papers: Ikpeme14 discusses the pathology and methods used for pyogenic bone infections while Galukande15 discusses rethinking breast cancer screening strategies in resource limited settings. Oyagbeni report on hepatocellular carcinoma16 and its underlying mechanisms. Case reports The menu ends with two very interesting reports: Alese's muciginous cystadnoma of the appendix17; and unusual case of thyroid abscess18. Have very fruitful reading. James K Tumwine Editor in Chief, African Health Sciences References
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