Utero-vaginal prolapse: a rural disability of the young.

A study consisting of 156 and 195 patients admitted to Gondar College and Gandhi Memorial hospitals respectively, for surgical corrections of vaginouterine prolapses of second and third degrees was carried out from June 1989 to June 1993. At Gondar, uterovaginal prolapses accounted for 19.9% of all major gynaecological operations in comparison to 17.2% at Gandhi. The mean ages for Gondar and Gandhi subjects were 38.09 +/- 11.52 and 42.17 +/- 13.16 years, respectively. In both centres there is statistically significant (p < 0.05) sequestration of especially third degree prolapse with increase in age. Mean parity of 5.6 +/- 2.7 children and 5.4 +/- 2.6 children have been obtained for Gondar and Gandhi groups, respectively. There is statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) of the second and more so of the third degree genito- urinary prolapse with increase in parity. Of the 125 housewives from the Gondar group, 114 (92.2%) were from the rural areas. The results of Gandhi group revealed that 143 (90.5%) out of 158 subjects were rural housewives. There is significant association of prolapse and occupation particularly with the rural housewives of both centres. The symptoms and signs of both centres were variable and dependent on degrees of prolapse; and the mean durations were 2.8 years +/- 2.9 years for Gondar and 2.4 years +/- 2.4 years for Gandhi, respectively. As a vaginal problem, vaginal surgical approaches yielded better results despite shortcomings of short term follow up. This paper based on two hospital records with similar results illustrates that it is mainly a rural problem and relatively of a younger population.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)