Department of Paediatrics and Medicine, Gambo Rural General Hospital, Shashemane, Ethiopia.
Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante 03010, Spain.
J Trop Pediatr. 2018 Jun 1;64(3):195-201. doi: 10.1093/tropej/fmx048.
To analyse differences in children and adolescents aged ≤18 years admitted to the leprosy ward in a rural Ethiopian hospital >16 years.
We retrospectively collected data from leprosy admission registry books on patients with leprosy who were admitted to a referral hospital from September 2000 to September 2016.
There were 2129 admissions for leprosy during the study period: 180 (8.4%) patients were s ≤ 18 years old. Of these, 98 (54.4%) were male and 82 (45.6%) were female. The proportion of new diagnoses in children and adolescents was 31.7%, significantly higher than in adults (11.7%; p < 0.001). There were also significant differences in the prevalence of lepromatous ulcers (46.9 vs. 61.7%), leprosy reaction (29.4 vs. 13.0%) and neuritis (16.9 vs.5.3%) between these age groups.
There were more new diagnoses, leprosy reactions and neuritis, and fewer lepromatous ulcers, in children and adolescents compared with adults, with younger patients being referred more frequently to reference centres.
分析在埃塞俄比亚农村医院麻风病房中，16 岁以上≤18 岁的儿童和青少年患者的差异。
我们回顾性地从 2000 年 9 月至 2016 年 9 月间转诊至一家专科医院的麻风病入院登记册中收集麻风病患者的数据。
在研究期间，共有 2129 例麻风病住院患者：180 例（8.4%）患者年龄≤18 岁。其中，98 例（54.4%）为男性，82 例（45.6%）为女性。儿童和青少年中新诊断的比例为 31.7%，显著高于成年人（11.7%；p<0.001）。在儿童和青少年中，瘤型溃疡（46.9%比 61.7%）、麻风反应（29.4%比 13.0%）和神经炎（16.9%比 5.3%）的比例也存在显著差异。
与成年人相比，儿童和青少年中更多的是新诊断病例、麻风反应和神经炎，而瘤型溃疡则较少，年龄较小的患者更频繁地被转诊至参考中心。
