02176nas a2200397   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001000055653002500065653002100090653003000111653002000141653001100161653001100172653002300183653001200206653000900218653001600227653001500243653001700258653001100275653001600286653001800302100001700320700001500337700001100352700001100363700001300374245010800387856005900495300001000554490000700564050003200571520116100603022001401764       1995                            d  c1995 Sep10aAdult10aAnalysis of Variance10aCorneal Diseases10aDrug Therapy, Combination10aEyelid Diseases10aFemale10aHumans10aLeprostatic Agents10aleprosy10aMale10aMiddle Aged10aPrevalence10aRisk Factors10aTaiwan10aVision, Low10aVisual Acuity1 aCourtright P1 aLewallen S1 aLi H Y1 aHu L F1 aYang J W00aLagophthalmos in a multibacillary population under multidrug therapy in the People's Republic of China.  uhttp://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/1995/v66n3/pdf/v66n3a04.pdf  a214-90 v66  aInfolep Library - available3 a<p>Lagophthalmos may be the most common potentially blinding ocular condition in leprosy. The magnitude of the problem among multibacillary patients has not been determined. We sought to ascertain the magnitude of lagophthalmos in a multibacillary leprosy patient population under multidrug therapy (MDT) (both newly diagnosed and with a prior history of dapsone monotherapy) in China and assess factors associated with its presence. In a survey of 640 multibacillary patients 3.8% of the newly diagnosed patients and 10.2% of the patients with prior dapsone monotherapy had lagophthalmos. Corneal disease and vision loss were common in both groups. Poor compliance with MDT, duration between onset and diagnosis, and duration on dapsone monotherapy were associated with the presence of lagophthalmos. Our findings suggest that there may be a threshold at which MDT must be maintained to prevent lagophthalmos. Early leprosy diagnosis and treatment would also lessen the incidence of lagophthalmos in these patients. The high proportion of lagophthalmos patients with corneal disease suggests that there has been inadequate eye care for these patients.</p>  a0305-7518