[Lagophthalmos and posterior synechiae of the iris during treatment of leprosy with diaminodiphenylsulfone]

Abstract

Four years after controlled and standardized chemotherapy with diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS), 316 patients in the leprosarium at Khokana, Nepal were re-examined for ophthalmological findings. Patients who, 4 years earlier, had not had lagophthalmos in either eye, nor posterior synechiae of the iris, had only developed these complications in the meantime if they were suffering from DDS-resistant leprosy. New posterior synechiae of the iris were only found in patients with inactive leprosy who had already had a posterior synechia in the fellow eye four years previously. In cases of inactive leprosy there was also a tendency for existing posterior synechiae to increase. It is emphasized that the development of lagophthalmos or posterior synechiae of the iris indicates that a previously inactive leprosy may have become reactivated in spite of treatment with DDS.