Abstract
Hansen’s disease (HD) belongs to the group of neglected diseases and can cause physical deformities and disabilities, in addition to leading to social discrimination. Ocular involvement in HD is estimated at 70–75% worldwide. About 10–50% suffer from severe ocular symptoms and loss of vision occurs in approximately 5% of cases. Ocular changes may persist or worsen even after patients are considered cured and it is necessary to better understand these conditions in order to determine the need for additional public policies. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of ocular involvement in patients with HD at two specialist referral centers for treatment of the disease. A cross-sectional study was conducted with ophthalmological evaluations of patients with HD from June 2017 to June 2018. Diagnostic ocular findings, corrected visual acuity, and refractive error were described. Findings were correlated with patients’ clinical and epidemiological variables. A total of 86 patients were evaluated, with a mean age of 50.1 years, predominantly males (59.3%), and with multibacillary HD (92%). The prevalence of ophthalmologic changes was 100% and the most common were dysfunction of the Meibomian glands (89.5%) and dry eye syndrome (81.4%). Cataracts were observed in 22 patients (25.6%), but best corrected visual acuity was normal or near normal in 84 patients (97.7%) and there were no cases of bilateral blindness. Patients with some degree of physical disability had more ophthalmological alterations, involving both the ocular adnexa (p = 0.03) and the ocular globe (p = 0.04). Ocular involvement is common in patients with Hansen’s disease, reinforcing the importance of ophthalmologic examination in the evaluation and follow-up of these patients.
Highlights
Leprosy, known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic, infectious, contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae
This study found that 100% of the sample of patients with Hansen’s disease had some type of abnormality of the eyes or adnexa and that patients over the age of 50 and those with some degree of physical incapacity secondary to Hansen’s disease were at greatest risk
Known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic, infectious, contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae
Summary
Known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic, infectious, contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Contagion is caused by elimination of the bacillus via the airways of untreated patients, infecting susceptible individuals who come into close and prolonged contact [1,2,3,4]. It primarily involves the skin, peripheral nerves, and eyes [1, 2] and is the bacterial disease with the highest incidence of ocular involvement, compared with any other bacterial infection in humans [5,6,7,8]. Londrina is the fourth most affected city in the state, with 18 new cases in 2018 [10]
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