Clinical and epidemiological profile of leprosy patients admitted to a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro between 2008 and 2017

Abstract

Introduction: This was an observational, longitudinal, retrospective and descriptive study of a cohort of patients.

Objectives: To describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of the patients diagnosed with leprosy admitted to a reference medical center in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Methods: All leprosy patients admitted to the dermatology clinic from the Hospital Universitário Gaffrée and Guinle between 2008 and 2017 were included. Pertinent patients’ data were collected through medical charts review. Data were then analyzed through descriptive statistics using SPSS 22.0  software. 

Results: a total of 112 patients were included in the study. Among them, 54.5% were male, the median age was 49.9 years old, 62.4% were residents in the city of Rio de Janeiro and 69.9% presented multibacillary leprosy clinical forms. We evaluated the initial disability grade of 36 from the 112 included patients,  and out of them,  25% had grade II disability. During multidrug therapy, 21 (18.8%) patients presented an adverse effect, which is the most common anemia related to Dapsone. Fifty-nine (52.7%) patients presented leprosy reaction and 10 (8.9%) patients presented severe systemic complications during the follow-up.

Conclusions: In the present study, it was observed a distinctive clinical and epidemiological leprosy profile. There was a high frequency of grade II initial disability, leprosy reaction and severe clinical complications due to the progression of the disease or as adverse effects of leprosy treatment.