Effectiveness of 32 versus 20 weeks of prednisolone in leprosy patients with recent nerve function impairment: A randomized controlled trial.
- Inge Wagenaar
- Erik Post
- Wim Brandsma
- Bob Bowers
- Khorshed Alam
- Vanaja Shetty
- Vivek Pai
- Sajid Husain
- Cita Rosita Sigit Prakoeswa
- Linda Astari
- Deanna Hagge
- Mahesh Shah
- Kapil Neupane
- Krishna Bahadur Tamang
- TENLEP study group
- Peter Nicholls
- Jan Hendrik Richardus
DOIAbstract
While prednisolone is commonly used to treat recent nerve function impairment (NFI) in leprosy patients, the optimal treatment duration has not yet been established. In this "Treatment of Early Neuropathy in Leprosy" (TENLEP) trial, we evaluated whether a 32-week prednisolone course is more effective than a 20-week course in restoring and improving nerve function.In this multi-centre, triple-blind, randomized controlled trial, leprosy patients who had recently developed clinical NFI (<6 months) were allocated to a prednisolone treatment regimen of either 20 weeks or 32 weeks. Prednisolone was started at either 45 or 60 mg/day, depending on the patient's body weight, and was then tapered. Throughout follow up, NFI was assessed by voluntary m...
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