Treatment of Leprosy

BEFORE the present decade, surgery on the patient with leprosy was mainly a retreating battle against advancing deformity. When ulceration of fingers or toes deepened to cause osteomyelitis, necrotic bone was removed. When ulceration became too widespread on the front of the foot, a partial amputation was performed. Higher amputations followed when the stumps themselves became destroyed. A few surgeons had attempted reconstructive surgery to the extent of excising nodules from ears and unsightly loose folds of skin from the face in arrested cases, to make it easier for the patients to rejoin society. Leprosy was regarded by most as . . .