Retrospective analysis of leprosy reactions in a 3 year period

Introduction: Leprosy reactions are an important cause of morbidity for the patients. There are 3 types: type I, type II, and mixed reaction.

Method: This is a retrospective analysis of 65 patients during the period of 3 years from January 2007 to January 2010.

Results: There were a total of 223 new patients under treatment for leprosy during the study period. 29% (65) developed lepra reactions. Type I reactions were seen in 67 .6%, type ll in 21.5% and mixed in 10.7%. All the mixed cases and 61.5% of the type II patients had recurrences.  Majority (88.6%) of type I patients responded to prednisolone alone. 51% of mixed and 71% of type II needed treatment with multiple drugs.

Conclusions: Reactions were common in Multi Bacillary (MB) leprosy than in Pauci Bacillary (PB) leprosy. Three types of lepra reactions were identified: Type I, Type II and mixed reactions. Type I reaction was the commonest entity. Recurrences in Type I were uncommon.