Self treatment, African style

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7498.1015

BMJ 2005;330:1015 (30 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7498.1015

Filler

A memorable patient

Self treatment, African style

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In my 22 years of medical and surgical work in Africa, thiswas a unique experience. A truck driver whose job involved longjourneys in remote areas of Africa attended an outreach clinicthat I was running with my friend and colleague Jack Gardnerfrom the United States.

The patient complained of a three year history of difficultypassing urine, being able to produce only a thin trickle ofurine with straining. He had been to many hospitals, where hisurethral passage was dilated many times, and he had been toldthat the passage had been narrowed because of sexually transmitteddisease, apparently acquired while away from home because ofhis work. He mentioned that he had episodes of pus-like dischargefrom his penis in the past few years.

We offered him another operation, but he declined. Since hislast operation, some six months previously, he had resortedto self . . . [Full text of this article]

N Charavanapavan, surgeon

Mission Medical Department, PO Box 61019, Livingstone, Zambia, Africa