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.
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El-Domyati, M., Mourad, B., Abdel-Wahab, H. (2022). Leprosy. In: Smoller, B., Bagherani, N. (eds) Atlas of Dermatology, Dermatopathology and Venereology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53805-1_74
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