Lucio Leprosy in Neglected Cases of Hansen’s Disease: A Series of Three Cases
WR01-WR05
Correspondence
Dr. Bhackiya Shree Vijayan,
Flat-C, Athipoo Flat, New No. 3, Thiruvalluvar Street, Metha Nagar, Chennai-60030, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-mail: bhackiya.shree96@gmail.com
Lucio Leprosy is a rare form of Lepromatous leprosy, which normally occurs in chronic untreated patients of Hansen’s disease. Lucio Leprosy, was first reported from Mexico and henceforth commonly known as Mexican leprosy, but is now being increasingly reported sporadically across the globe. Lucio leprosy presents as slowly progressive diffuse infiltration of skin all over the body with shiny waxy thickened skin, loss of body hair including eyebrows and eyelashes, puffy hands and sensory loss due to involvement of dermal nerves. There will be thickening of upper eyelids that gives the patient a sleepy look (Melancholy look). This case series pertains to three such patients (58 year and 63 year old females and 55 year old male) of chronic lepromatous leprosy who had features suspicious of Lucio leprosy. Each case of the present series had a unique clinical presentation like diffuse infiltration of skin, total loss of eyebrows, oedema of hands, characteristic triangular ulcers with jagged borders and was posing challenge to the treating Dermatologist. Heavy colonisation of Mycobaterium leprae was observed in the endothelium of small capillaries in the superficial dermis. Involvement of these capillaries manifested as haemorrhage and infarction of the overlying epidermis. As this unusual variant of untreated chronic lepromatous leprosy leads to potentially lethal complications, which are irreversible therefore the present study has been designed to highlight the factors predisposing to Lucio leprosy and its impact on the quality of life.