Silent iritis in treated bacillary negative leprosy

Iridectomy specimens from 59 leprosy patients who had adequate medical records of whom 33 belong to the lepromatous (LL) leprosy variety and 16 normal controls were studied histopathologically. All patients were bacteriologically negative and had received dapsone followed by multidrug therapy (MDT), or MDT only, or only dapsone for varying periods. It was found that leprosy, particularly lepromatous disease, did not significantly decrease the age of formation of cataract. Of the 33 LL patients studied 60.6% had silent iritis. The duration of treatment had no obvious influence on the persistence of iritis. Treatment with only 2 years of MDT for LL patients did not significantly increase the prevalence of persistent silent iritis compared to those who received other types of antileprosy therapy for long periods. It is pointed out that chronic iritis is a serious complication that continues even after the patient is declared clinically and bacteriologically cured, especially in patients who had a history of chronic iritis clinically.