Steroid therapy in recent "quiet nerve paralysis" in leprosy. Report of a study of twenty-five patients.

Nerve trunks may "quietly" get paralysed in a proportion of leprosy patients without going through a stage of acute or subacute neuritis. A study of 25 male patients with quiet paralysis of 57 nerves shows that such paralysis, which may be complete or incomplete, can occur in any type of leprosy and may involve any nerve trunk. Steroid therapy for six months reversed the motor paralysis to a satisfactory extent in about 75% of the nerves. Recovery rate was higher in nerves other than the ulnar nerve, and when paralysis was incomplete or of short duration. There was no recurrence of paralysis after stopping steroid therapy. Except for mooning of the face noticed in two patients, no serious side effects attributable to prolonged steroid therapy occurred in the subjects included in this trial.