Friday, October 3, 2008

An attempt to standardize nerve enlargement in leprosy

Leprosy Mailing List - September 21st, 2008

Ref.: An attempt to standardize nerve enlargement in leprosy
From: Eggens H., Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Dear Salvatore,

I refer to the important LML message of Dr Krishna Moorthy K. V., Cherlapally, Hyderabad, India, requiring information about graduation of nerve thickening in leprosy and dated July 31st, 2008. I thank him for putting forward this topic.

During my initial training in leprosy (mid-eighties) I came across a learning device (at ALERT?) consisting of a set of about five pieces of rope (10 cm long) of different diameter. During the examination of patients, the size of their nerves were to be compared with the set of ropes to try to make any nerve enlargement objectively verifiable.
I never saw it since then. It was an attempt to standardize nerve enlargements. Anybody has recent experiences?

Henk

Henk Eggens, MD, MPH
Senior Public Health Adviser
Development Policy & Practice
Royal Tropical Institute
P.O.Box 95001, 1090 AH Amsterdam
Phone: +31 (0)20 5688305
Web: www.kit.nl

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