DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2020.v08i04.003

Pages: 88-91

Background: The prevalence of keloid among adult female students with multiple ear piercing was determined in the University of Port Harcourt. Rivers State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total number of 1000 participants comprising the age range of 20-30 years were used for this study. Questionnaires were given to the objects with multiple ear lobes piercing, from which the subjects with keloids were noted. Participants that had keloid were asked if they had any history of keloid in their family, when and how soon the keloid developed after piercing was done. Results and Discussion: It was noted that among the 1000 adult female students surveyed in University of Port Harcourt, about 99.5% of them with multiple ear lobe piercing had no keloid. Whereas 0.5% were found to develop keloid secondary to ear lobe piercing. Among the 0.5% of adult female students with keloid, only 0.1% had history of keloid in their family. This result appeared to be lower than previous reports on the prevalence of keloids in Africa. Comparing the keloid prevalence in African population with the Asian population showed that Taiwan had an annual keloid incidence rate 0.15 %, while for the Europeans 0.1%. Both values are far lower than the prevalence for African populations. Conclusion: This result shows that the prevalence of keloid secondary to ear lobe piercing is not common in the University of Port Harcourt. Rivers State Nigeria compared to what is obtainable in Africa, although higher than the values for Caucasians.