The complications of traditional uvulectomy and concurrent occurrences of cultural malpractices in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Despite the establishment of a national strategy and plan to eliminate all harmful traditional practices, traditional uvulectomy remains widely practiced in Ethiopia, and there is a lack of comprehensive summary of national data on uvulectomy complications and associated malpractices. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the pooled complications of uvulectomy and concurrent occurrences of traditional malpractices in Ethiopia.

Methods: The following databases were used to retrieve studies: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, SCOPUS, and Google Search. Manual searches were also utilized to identify relevant articles. Studies reporting traditional uvulectomy complications and malpractices in Ethiopia were considered. STATA Version 17 was utilized for statistical analyses, while heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed using I statistics.

Results: From a total of 259 studies found in electronic databases, 19 studies (23,559 study participants) were incorporated in the analysis. The pooled incidence of complications following traditional uvulectomy in Ethiopia was 29 % (95 % CI: 14%-44 %). Hemorrhage, transmission of communicable infections, and sepsis are the most common complications of traditional uvulectomy. Concurrent to uvulectomy female genital cutting (23 %), milk tooth extraction (29 %), bloodletting ("mebtat" in Amharic) (11 %), eyebrow incision (10 %), and body tattooing (16 %) were found to be widely practiced in Ethiopia.

Conclusions: The overall pooled results of this study revealed that three out of ten children who underwent traditional uvulectomy experienced complications such as hemorrhage, the spread of contagious infections, and sepsis. Children underwent uvulectomy are also victim to other traditional malpractices including milk teeth extraction, bloodletting, eyebrow incision, tonsillectomy, and body tattooing. Efforts should be made to update strategies to avert malpractices through awareness-creation, social mobilization, and controlling traditional practitioners.