Effectiveness of the retreatment of patients with multibacillary leprosy and episodes of erythema nodosum leprosum and/or persistent neuritis: a single-center experience

Abstract

BackgroundErythema nodosum leprosum may appear before, during or after treatment of leprosy and is one of the main factors for nerve damage in patients. When it occurs or continues to occur after treatment, it may indicate disease recurrence and a new treatment may be instituted again.ObjectiveTo evaluate the retreatment of patients with multibacillary leprosy who underwent standard treatment with multidrug therapy, but developed or continued to present reactions of erythema nodosum leprosum and/or neuritis 3-5 years after its end.MethodFor this objective, a new treatment was performed in 29 patients with multibacillary leprosy who maintained episodes of erythema nodosum and/or neuritis 3-5 years after conventional treatment.ResultsIn general, we observed that 27 (93.10%) had no more new episodes after a follow up period of eight months to five years. In five of these patients the reason for the retreatment was the occurrence of difficult-to-control neuritis, and that has ceased to occur in all of them.Study limitationsSmall number of patients..ConclusionIn the cases observed, retreatment was an effective measure to prevent the occurrence of erythema nodosum leprosum and/or persistent neuritis.

Alternate Anti-Leprosy Regimen for Multidrug Therapy Refractory Leprosy: A Retrospective Study from a Tertiary Care Center in North India

“…Future studies should try to define and refine the criteria for nonresponse/treatment failure after WHO-MDT and predict the factors that lead to nonresponse. A prospective comparison of prolongation of standard MDT-MBR 25 and ALT in nonresponsive patients shall be interesting.…”