Persistence of lepromatous granuloma in clinically cured cases of leprosy.

Multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients are declared cured when they become bacteriologically negative and their lesions do not show any signs of clinical activity. Whether there is also a corresponding histological clearance of skin lesions is not known. The present study was carried out on the histopathology of the skin of 40 MB cases who were declared cured with multidrug (MDT). In 22 of them, small lepromatous granulomas were seen to persist, although acidfast bacilli were not found in them. The presence of these granulomas was not found to have any significant associated with the duration of the disease, length of treatment, or the period of cessation of therapy.