Abstract
Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, principally affecting the peripheral nerves and skin. Leprosy is a serious health issue in a number of low socioeconomic classes and overcrowded countries. Although it seldom kills, leprosy represents a deforming, disabling, and stigmatizing disease. It has a wide spectrum of clinical findings, including lepromatous, tuberculoid, borderline, and indeterminate poles. The diagnosis is usually made by characteristic clinical findings (typical skin lesions, skin anesthesia, or thickened nerves), slit-skin smears, skin and nerve biopsy, and lepromin test.
Antibacterial treatment (multidrug regimen) for leprosy is highly effective, with low relapse rate, but needs to be taken over many months. If left untreated, borderline patients will downgrade toward the lepromatous end of the spectrum, and lepromatous patients will suffer from the numerous complications of bacillary invasion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Antia NH, Mehta L, Shetty V, Irani PF (1975) Clinical, electrophysiological, quantitative, histologic and ultrastructural studies of the index branch of the radial cutaneous nerve in leprosy. I. Preliminary report. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis 43(2):106–113
Azulay RD, Azulay DR (2006) Mycobacterioses. In: Azulay RD, Azulay DR (eds) Dermatologia, 4th edn. Guanabara Koogan, Rio de Janeiro, pp 302–322
Britton W (2003) Leprosy. In: Cohen J, Powderly WG (eds) Infectious diseases. Mosby, London, pp 1507–1513
Canizares O, Harman R, Adriaans B (1992) Leprosy. In: Canizares O, Harman R (eds) Clinical tropical dermatology, 2nd edn. Blackwell Scientific, Boston, pp 165–200
Job CK (1973) Mechanism of nerve destruction in tuberculoid-borderline leprosy. An electron-microscopic study. J Neurol Sci 20(1):25–38
Kiran KU, Stanley JN, Pearson JM (1985) The outpatient treatment of nerve damage in patients with borderline leprosy using a semi-standardized steroid regimen. Lepr Rev 56(2):127–134
Levy L, Ji B (2006) The mouse foot-pad technique for cultivation of Mycobacterium leprae. Lepr Rev 77(1):5–24
Lockwood DN (2010) Leprosy. In: Burn T, Breathnach S, Cox N, Griffiths C (eds) Rook’s textbook of dermatology, vol 32, 8th edn. Blackwell Science, Oxford, pp 1–20
Lockwood DN, Sinha HH (1999) Pregnancy and leprosy: a comprehensive literature review. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis 67(1):6–12
Lockwood DN, Vinayakumar S, Stanley JN, McAdam KP, Colston MJ (1993) Clinical features and outcome of reversal (type 1) reactions in Hyderabad, India. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis 61(1):8–15
Lockwood DN, Lucas SB, Desikan KV, Ebenezer G, Suneetha S, Nicholls P (2008) The histological diagnosis of leprosy type 1 reactions: identification of key variables and an analysis of the process of histological diagnosis. J Clin Pathol 61(5):595–600
Mahajan PM, Jogaikar DG, Mehta JM (1996) A study of pure neuritic leprosy: clinical experience. Indian J Lepr 68(2):137–141
Maiberger MP, Nunley JR, Wolverton SE (2018) Other systemic drugs. In: Bolognia JL, Schaffer JV, Cerroni L (eds) Dermatology, 4th edn. Elsevier, New York, p 2268
Monteiro R, Abreu MA, Tiezzi MG, Roncada EV, Oliveira CC, Ortigosa LC (2012) Lucio’s phenomenon: another case reported in Brazil. An Bras Dermatol 87(2):296–300
Pedley JC (1973) The nasal mucus in leprosy. Lepr Rev 44(1):33–35
Pocaterra L, Jain S, Reddy R, Muzaffarullah S, Torres O, Suneetha S, Lockwood DN (2006) Clinical course of erythema nodosum leprosum: an 11-year cohort study in Hyderabad, India. Am J Trop Med Hyg 74(5):868–879
Prasad PV, Kaviarasan PK (2010) Leprosy therapy, past and present: can we hope to eliminate it? Indian J Dermatol 55(4):316–324
Ramos-e-Silva M, Rebello PF (2001) Leprosy. Recognition and treatment. Am J Clin Dermatol 2(4):203–211
Rees RJ, Young DB (1994) The microbiology of leprosy. In: Hastings RC, Opromolla DV (eds) Leprosy, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, New York, pp 49–83
Ridley DS (1958) Therapeutic trials in leprosy using serial biopsies. Lepr Rev 29(1):45–52
Ridley DS (1977) Skin biopsy in leprosy. Documents Geigy, Basel
Ridley DS (1988) Pathogenesis of leprosy and related diseases. Wright, London
Ridley DS, Jopling WH (1966) Classification of leprosy according to immunity. Int J Lepr 34(3):255–273
Ridley DS, Radia KB (1981) The histological course of reactions in borderline leprosy and their outcome. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis 49(4):383–392
Sehgal VN, Srivastava G (1987) Indeterminate leprosy. A passing phase in the evolution of leprosy. Lepr Rev 58(3):291–299
Storrs EE (1971) The nine-banded armadillo: a model for leprosy and other biomedical research. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis 39(3):703–714
Sugita Y (1995) Leprosy. Clin Dermatol 13(3):235–243
Suneetha S, Arunthathi S, Chandi S, Kurian N, Chacko CJ (1998) Histological studies in primary neuritic leprosy: changes in the apparently normal skin. Lepr Rev 69(4):351–357
World Health Organization (2017) Media centre. Leprosy Fact sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101//en/.htm. Accessed 17 Mar 2017
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
El-Domyati, M., Mourad, B., Abdel-Wahab, H. (2019). Leprosy. In: Smoller, B., Bagherani, N. (eds) Atlas of Dermatology, Dermatopathology and Venereology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45134-3_74-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45134-3_74-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-45134-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-45134-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine