A Case of Type 2 Leprosy Reaction in Borderline Lepromatous Leprosy Masquerading as Orbital Cellulitis in an Immigrant Worker
- Author:
O sung KWON
1
;
Hyung Rok KIM
;
Joon soo PARK
;
Hyun CHUNG
;
Hyun Hee KWON
;
Kyung Duck PARK
Author Information
- Publication Type:Case Report
- Keywords: Borderline leprosy; Immigrants; Leprosy reaction
- MeSH: Adult; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Diagnosis; Emigrants and Immigrants; Humans; Incidence; Leprosy; Leprosy, Borderline; Leprosy, Multibacillary; Mycobacterium leprae; Orbit; Orbital Cellulitis; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Prevalence; Sensation Disorders; Skin; Skin Diseases
- From:Korean Leprosy Bulletin 2017;50(1):43-47
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
- Abstract: Hansen's disease(HD) is a chronic infectious disorder acquired by inoculation of Mycobacterium leprae. With the establishment of complex multidrug therapy, the incidence rate of leprosy patients has continually shown to decline by 90% compared to the incidence rate in the 1990s. However, the prevalence of the disease still remains high in southeast asian countries. Due to the rarity and diverse nature of cutaneous presentation, HD is often misdiagnosed with other dermatoses or infectious conditions. Especially, when a patient presents with unusual presentation with leprosy reaction with no classical feature such as sensory disorders and skin lesion, the diagnosis is further delayed with misguided treatments. Herein we present a 27-year-old Indonesian immigrant who displayed clinical features mimicking that of orbital cellulitis who was later diagnosed with borderline lepromatous leprosy through histologic and PCR confirmation, in light of alerting the probability of leprosy in immigrants with intractable skin presentations.
