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Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium leprae is the only pathogenic bacteria able to infect peripheral nerves. Neural impairment results in a set of sensitive, motor and autonomic disturbances, with ulcers originating primarily on the hands and feet. The study objectives were to analyze the clinic-epidemiologic...

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Autores principales: Barreto, Josafá G, Salgado, Claudio G
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2928232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20698989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-10-237
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author Barreto, Josafá G
Salgado, Claudio G
author_facet Barreto, Josafá G
Salgado, Claudio G
author_sort Barreto, Josafá G
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium leprae is the only pathogenic bacteria able to infect peripheral nerves. Neural impairment results in a set of sensitive, motor and autonomic disturbances, with ulcers originating primarily on the hands and feet. The study objectives were to analyze the clinic-epidemiological characteristics of patients attended at one specialized dressing service from a leprosy-endemic region of the Brazilian Amazon and to evaluate the effect of low level laser therapy (LLLT) on wound healing of these patients. METHODS: Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of patients with leprosy sequelae was performed at the reference unit in sanitary dermatology of the state of Pará in Brazil. We conducted anamnesis, identification of the regions affected by the lesions and measurement of ulcer depth and surface area. After that, we performed a randomized clinical trial. Fifty-one patients with ulcers related to leprosy were evaluated, twenty-five of them were randomly assigned to a low level laser therapy group or a control group. Patients were treated 3 times per week for 12 weeks. Outcome measures were ulcer surface area, ulcer depth and the pressure ulcer scale for healing score (PUSH). RESULTS: Ninety-seven ulcers were identified, with a mean (SD) duration of 97.6 (111.7) months, surface area of 7.3 (11.5) cm(2), and depth of 6.0 (6.2) mm. Statistical analysis of the data determined that there were no significant differences in the variables analyzed before and after treatment with low level laser therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Ulcers in patients with leprosy remain a major source of economic and social losses, even many years after they have been cured of M. leprae infection. Our results indicate that it is necessary to develop new and more effective therapeutic tools, as low level laser therapy did not demonstrate any additional benefits to ulcer healing with the parameters used in this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT00860717.
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spelling pubmed-29282322010-08-26 Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial Barreto, Josafá G Salgado, Claudio G BMC Infect Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium leprae is the only pathogenic bacteria able to infect peripheral nerves. Neural impairment results in a set of sensitive, motor and autonomic disturbances, with ulcers originating primarily on the hands and feet. The study objectives were to analyze the clinic-epidemiological characteristics of patients attended at one specialized dressing service from a leprosy-endemic region of the Brazilian Amazon and to evaluate the effect of low level laser therapy (LLLT) on wound healing of these patients. METHODS: Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of patients with leprosy sequelae was performed at the reference unit in sanitary dermatology of the state of Pará in Brazil. We conducted anamnesis, identification of the regions affected by the lesions and measurement of ulcer depth and surface area. After that, we performed a randomized clinical trial. Fifty-one patients with ulcers related to leprosy were evaluated, twenty-five of them were randomly assigned to a low level laser therapy group or a control group. Patients were treated 3 times per week for 12 weeks. Outcome measures were ulcer surface area, ulcer depth and the pressure ulcer scale for healing score (PUSH). RESULTS: Ninety-seven ulcers were identified, with a mean (SD) duration of 97.6 (111.7) months, surface area of 7.3 (11.5) cm(2), and depth of 6.0 (6.2) mm. Statistical analysis of the data determined that there were no significant differences in the variables analyzed before and after treatment with low level laser therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Ulcers in patients with leprosy remain a major source of economic and social losses, even many years after they have been cured of M. leprae infection. Our results indicate that it is necessary to develop new and more effective therapeutic tools, as low level laser therapy did not demonstrate any additional benefits to ulcer healing with the parameters used in this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT00860717. BioMed Central 2010-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC2928232/ /pubmed/20698989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-10-237 Text en Copyright ©2010 Barreto and Salgado; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Barreto, Josafá G
Salgado, Claudio G
Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title_full Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title_fullStr Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title_full_unstemmed Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title_short Clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
title_sort clinic-epidemiological evaluation of ulcers in patients with leprosy sequelae and the effect of low level laser therapy on wound healing: a randomized clinical trial
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2928232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20698989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-10-237
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