[Endocrine diseases at the National Hospital of Niamey (Niger). Apropos of 195 cases].

The authors report 195 cases of endocrine diseases diagnosed in a department of internal medicine at the National Hospital of Niamey (Niger) from January 1982 to December 1986. Diseases of the thyroid gland were largely predominant (70.8%), with simple (34.9%) and nodular (19%) goiters. Hypothyroidism and thyroiditis were not frequent (2 and 2.6%, respectively). The rarity of thyroid cancers (1%) was in relation to the direct hospitalization of these patients in the surgical department. They were not included in this study. In spite of the magnitude of tuberculosis endemicity in Niger, primary adrenocortical deficiency (Addison's disease) was absent. The frequency (15.4%) of postpartum hypopituitarism (Sheehan's syndrome) is explained by sahelian customs: a great majority of African women delivered at home without medical assistance.