Treatment of leprosy uveitis

I believe that everyone is still relatively unfamiliar with leprosy uveitis. Leprosy uveitis is a disease we do not see often, but once suffering from leprosy uveitis, the harm it brings to the patient is very great, so we must pay attention to it. We need to know what leprosy uveitis is and what are the symptoms of leprosy uveitis.

We should also understand the causes of leprosy uveitis. As long as we know which factors are likely to cause the occurrence of leprosy uveitis, we can try to avoid these factors in our lives.

Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, also known as Hansen's disease, which mainly affects the skin, peripheral nerves, mucous membranes and eye tissues. In the eyes, it can cause rabies, scleritis, episcleritis, iridocyclitis, etc. Leprotic uveitis mainly occurs in lepromatous leprosy. It can cause iridocyclitis, which manifests as acute iridocyclitis, chronic iridocyclitis, miliary iris leprosy nodules and large iris leprosy nodules.

Mycobacterium leprae is a bacterium that grows inside cells. It is short, rod-shaped and ranges in size from (0.21×3)μm to (0.5×8)μm. Humans are the main host of Mycobacterium leprae, and other animals such as armadillos, chimpanzees, monkeys, etc. can also be infected.

Dapsone and rifampicin are effective drugs for treating leprosy, but drug resistance is prone to occur. The World Health Organization recommends the following combination medication regimen: ① For patients with paucibacillary leprosy, give dapsone and rifampicin orally for half a year under supervision; ② For patients with multibacillary leprosy, use rifampicin, dapsone and clofazimine as a combination for at least 2 years. Some other drugs such as ofloxacin, minocycline and erythromycin can also be used.

Eye lesions such as iridocyclitis and scleritis often resolve after treatment with the above treatment regimen. In addition to the above-mentioned treatments, patients with iridocyclitis should also be given glucocorticoid eye drops. For some more serious patients, oral glucocorticoids can be given, and ciliary muscle paralytics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug eye drops should also be given. For patients with trigeminal nerve palsy and other nerve palsy or eyelid deformity, attention should be paid to protecting the cornea (such as applying eye ointment, artificial tears, etc.) and appropriate treatment should be given (such as ectropion correction surgery).

Above we introduced what leprosy uveitis is. We know that leprosy uveitis is a relatively rare disease, but we should also know some knowledge about leprosy uveitis. The above article introduces in detail the causes of leprosy uveitis and the treatments of leprosy uveitis.