Assessment of needs and quality care issues of women with leprosy.

Objectives: Leprosy causes not just physical but psychosocial and economic problems which are further magnified in women due to gender disadvantages especially in developing countries. In order to determine the needs and quality care issues of women leprosy patients attending a hospital/health care facility, a research project was done.

Design: All women leprosy patients attending a Leprosy Referral Hospital in Kolkata, India during 2006 were interviewed in depth and clinically assessed, using a standardised proforma.

Incidence of neuritis among paucibacillary leprosy patients during treatment and surveillance.

A cohort study was done on 180 patients receiving the standard WHO PB-MDT regimen at the TLM Hospital in Kolkata, during MDT and 2 years of surveillance to determine the incidence of neuritis. Neuritis occurred in only 2 out of the 180 patients, confirming that the current WHO treatment for PB-MDT is attendant with minimal risk of neuritis. No risk factors were found, except pregnancy in a female patient.

Management of 34 chronic heel sinuses in leprosy, using a modification of a local rotation flap in Kolkata, India.

We have seen 55 trophic ulcers of the heel in 2 years in our hospital, between March 2000 and February 2002. Thirty-four were chronic heel sinuses, six cases of multiple sinuses and 28 cases of single sinus of the plantar aspect of the heel. All these cases were treated by excision of the sinus, paring the prominence of the calcaneum, or excision of the cavity within the calcaneum and coverage by a rotation flap or a modification of this flap.