| Specialty: | Dermatology |
Histoid leprosy is a skin condition, a rare form of multibacillary leprosy.[1] It can occur in those with relapsing leprosy after undergoing antibiotic therapy with dapsone, or less frequently in the first infection (termed de novo).[2]
Leprosy can appear in two forms, tuberculoid leprosy and lepromatous leprosy, and histoid leprosy is a variant of lepromatous leprosy. It appears as "cutaneous and/or subcutaneous nodules and papules, which are painless, succulent, discrete, smooth, globular, skin-colored to yellowish-brown, with apparently normal skin surrounding it."[3] In India, histoid leprosy is estimated to compose 2.79%-3.6% of all leprosy cases. The male to female ratio in most parts of the world is 2:1. It is treated with antimycobacterial chemotherapy and multibacillary multidrug therapy.