Clinical characteristics of Sorokdo's Hansen patients having neuropathic ulcer on the plantar region.

BACKGROUND: Sorokdo hospital has reported several clinical papers regarding hansen's disease every year, but they lacked clinical characteristics for patients having neuropathic ulcers and still do not have any standardised parameter for the objective comparison of features of their ulcer lesions, even with lots of experience over long periods for the lesions. METHOD: Out of 578 admitted patients as of Oct. 20th, 2011, 49 patients having plantar ulcers were subjected to the study. The medical records and wounds were reviewed and analyzed to define their clinical characteristics including prevalence period, type of hansen disease, combined diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, grade of disability, and the features of plantar ulcers. RESULTS: Study patients' age was 71+/-8.9 years old and 33(67.3%) patients were male. The diagnosis of hansen disease was made at the age of 21.1+/-9.1 years old. Lepromatous type was the most common with 36 patients (73.5%). According to the grade of disability, 33 patients 67.3% patients belonged to grade III to IV. 21 patients(42.8%) had hypertension as combined disease, 10(20.4%) with diabetes mellitus, and 8(16.3%) with psychiatric disorder such as dementia and schizophrenia. 49 study patients had 52 plantar ulcers in total number. The distribution of the lesions were in order of 33(63.4%) in fore, 19(19.4%) in middle and 5(9.7%) in hind sole. Right and left were similar in distribution and 4 cases had the lesions on whole sole, and 3 of them were in left side. CONCLUSION: From this retrospective study for 49 patients having plantar ulcer, the authors conclude that the risk factors for neuropathic ulcer and distribution of the plantar lesions were analyzed and they are expected to lead to the prevention of disease and improvement of treatment efficacy.