A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF HISTOMORPHOLOGICAL SPECTRUM OF HANSEN’S DISEASE IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE OF BARABANKI AREA

Objectives: Hansen’s disease is a chronic granulomatous infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Early detection is essential to prevent the disease’s spread and disability. Due to the multitude of morphologies, it may be difficult to accurately diagnose certain cases based solely on clinical signs; therefore, histopathology is crucial for definitive diagnosis. The study aims to investigate the various histological forms of leprosy over a year in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: It was a retrospective study that included 25 leprosy cases that were clinically and histopathologically diagnosed from July 2021 to August 2022 in a tertiary care center. Results: The majority of the cases were from the second decade with the male predominance of the cases (M:F=1.5:1). According to histomorphology, tuberculoid leprosy was the most common type (36%), followed by borderline tuberculoid (24%), borderline lepromatous (16%), lepromatous leprosy (8%), borderline leprosy (8%), histoid leprosy (4%), and indeterminate leprosy (4%). Ziehl–Neelsen staining for acid-fast bacilli demonstrated positivity in 8 cases. Conclusion: As the clinical spectrum of leprosy is diverse, histopathology is the gold standard for the diagnosis and a key tool in obtaining a conclusive diagnosis.