P. Desikan et Kv. Desikan, PERSISTENCE OF LEPROMATOUS GRANULOMA IN CLINICALLY CURED CASES OF LEPROSY, International journal of leprosy and other mycobacterial diseases, 63(3), 1995, pp. 417-421
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.