Late follow-up of peripheral neural decompression in leprosy: functional and clinical outcomes.

Background: Peripheral neural surgical decompression (PNSD) is used as a complementary therapy to the clinical treatment of neuritis to preserve neural function.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term (≥ 1 year) clinical and functional results for PNSD in leprosy neuritis.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included leprosy patients who were in late postoperative period (LPO) of surgical decompression of ulnar, median, tibial, and fibular nerves.

Identification of clinical, epidemiological and laboratory risk factors for leprosy reactions during and after multidrug therapy.

This cross-sectional retrospective study evaluated 440 leprosy patients; 57% (251/440) had leprosy reactions during and/or after multidrug therapy, 80.5% (202/251) of whom presented with multibacillary leprosy. At diagnosis, positive bacterial index (BI) [odds ratio (OR) = 6.

Unveiling healthy carriers and subclinical infections among household contacts of leprosy patients who play potential roles in the disease chain of transmission.

Leprosy transmission still occurs despite the availability of highly effective treatment. The next step towards successfully eliminating leprosy is interrupting the chain of transmission of the aetiological agent, Mycobacterium leprae. In this investigation, we provide evidence that household contacts (HHCs) of leprosy patients might not only have subclinical infections, but may also be actively involved in bacilli transmission.

Oral lesion in leprosy: borderline tuberculoid diagnosis based on detection of Mycobacterium leprae DNA by qPCR.

Oral lesions are rarely reported in paucibacillary forms of leprosy. We report here a case with an erythematous hyposensitive lesion in the palate and no skin lesions. In addition to routine tests, biopsies of the lesion in the palate and of clinically normal surrounding areas were performed and subjected to real-time PCR for detection of Mycobacterium leprae DNA.