Prevalence, clinical presentations, associated risk factors and recurrence of laryngeal papillomatosis among inpatients attended at a Tertiary Hospital in Northern zone Tanzania

INTRODUCTION: Although Laryngeal papillomatosis is a rare disease and can be conventionally managed through surgical excision as well as adjuvant therapy yet Laryngeal papillomatosis has high tendency to recur raising its prevalence in the community, airway involvement warrants dangerous complications requiring emergency tracheostomy, especially if clinical course is poorly understood and misdiagnosis is common. The study aims to determine the prevalence, clinical features, risk factors and recurrence of Laryngeal Papillomatosis among patients attending ENT department at KCMC from 2005 to 2015. METHODS: This was a 10 year experience/ Descriptive hospital based cross-sectional study conducted based on patients' medical record at KCMC. Information was recorded into data collection sheets, entered and analyzed through SPSS version 20, summarized and presented in tables and charts, proportions and percentage used to compare groups. RESULTS: 51 patients were identified over the 10 years study period corresponding to a prevalence of 0.09%. 26 were males and 25 females, ages ranging from 1 to 67 years. The median age of onset was 6 years. Children less than 5 years accounted for 19 (37.3%) and 58.8% had repeated surgeries. Clinical presentation ranged from hoarseness in 43 (84.3%) patients to weight loss 3 (5.9%) and 96.1% showed complete or partial presence of the clinical triad of risk factors. CONCLUSION: Laryngeal papillomatosis is a rare disease that carries severe morbidity due to its highly recurring nature. It is primarily a paediatric disease, generally affecting more males; its clinical features highly resemble other airway obstructive diseases and therefore a careful thorough clinical evaluation is required in order to correctly diagnose Laryngeal papillomatosis.