title: Primary bone tumours in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria: 25 year review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Primary bone tumors remain a daunting challenge to orthopaedic surgeons. The challenge is heightened in developing countries due to limited diagnostic and therapeutic facilities and ignorance. The published literature on the subject is sparse in our environment.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the pattern of primary bone tumors seen in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a retrospective review of all the histologically confirmed primary bone tumours seen at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) over a 25 year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 242 patients (aged 7.5 to 62 years) with a mean of 25.3 years were studied. One hundred and forty four patients (59.5%) were males and 98 (40.5%) were females. The peak age incidence was in the age group 11-20 years. One hundred and thirty (53.7%) of the tumors were benign. Among these Osteochondroma was the commonest accounting for 36 cases (27.7%) followed by Osteoclastoma, 28 cases (21.5%). Osteosarcoma accounted for 66 cases (58.9%) of all primary malignant tumours in the study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that primary bone tumours were mainly benign, occurred predominantly in the second decade of life with a male preponderance. Osteochondroma and Osteosarcoma were the most common benign and primary malignant bone tumours respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos. obalum1@yahoo.com
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Obalum
authors.forename: S O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Giwa
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Banjo
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Akinsulire
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015831:Osteochondroma / Q000453:epidemiology; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult