PERSISTENCE OF LEPROMATOUS GRANULOMA IN CLINICALLY CURED CASES OF LEPROSY

Multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients are declared cured when they beco me bacteriologically negative and their lesions do not show any signs of clinical activity. Whether there is also a corresponding histologic al clearance of skin lesions is not known. The present study was carri ed out on the histopathology of the skin of 40 MB cases who were decla red cured with multidrug (MDT). In 22 of them, small lepromatous granu lomas were seen to persist, although acid-fast bacilli were not found in them. The presence of these granulomas was not found to have any si gnificant association with the duration of the disease, length of trea tment, or the period of cessation of therapy.