Treatments of patients with leprosy at the Ryukyu University Hospital

Abstract

One of the most important points in the treatments of patients with leprosy is to heal the disease without sequelae including sensory loss. For this purpose, every available means should be performed. The treatments of patients with leprosy at the Ryukyu University Hospital were reported in this study. Most of the medications were similar to that of multi drug therapy (MDT) recommended by WHO. Some modified MDT was applied to some patients for prevention of the various sequelae caused by the peripheral nervous disorders. In addition, some assistant treatments were also performed at our outpatient clinic such as administrations of drugs for the improvement of the peripheral circulation expecting the bacteriostatic effect caused by rising temperature (2-3°C) of the skin lesions and expecting the recovery of the damaged peripheral nerves for the same purpose.