[Surgical treatment of leprous neuritis. The results in 114 operations]

One hundred and fourteen surgical operations for neuritis were performed in 50 patients coming from areas where leprosy is endemic. The neurological signs included pain and/or sensorimotor deficit. The surgical procedure consisted of transposition and/or neurolysis. Pain subsided in 86 per cent of the cases, and the sensorimotor deficit was reduced in 78.9 per cent. The effects of surgery on pain always appeared on recovery from anaesthesia or on the day following the operation. The results were particularly good in young subjects and in patients with neurological signs of recent onset. Poor results were observed only in cases of old and painless neuritis with motor deficit, the latter being usually unchanged. Few studies have been published on large series of leprous neuritis patients treated surgically. Surgery in such cases must be associated with a medical treatment, failing which the patient is exposed to relapses.