Professional paper
Pediatric Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Turkey: A Retrospective Analysis of 8047 Cases
Abdullah Solmaz
; Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
İsa An
orcid.org/0000-0003-3366-4551
; Sanlıurfa Training and Research Hospital, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
*
Ufuk Acar
orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-8307
; Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
Mustafa Aksoy
; Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is common in the pediatric popula-
tion, but there are only a limited number of studies focused on the clinical and
epidemiological characteristics of patients in this age group. In this study, our
objective was to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics
of pediatric subjects diagnosed with CL. A total of 8047 patients who had
been diagnosed with CL between 2010 and 2021 in an endemic region were
included in this retrospective study. The clinical and demographic character-
istics such as age, gender, number, size, duration, location, and type of lesions
and the administered CL treatments were recorded. In order to better under-
stand the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with pedi-
atric CL (PCL), the study patients were divided into three groups according
to their age (0-6, 7-12, and 13-18 years) and the clinical and epidemiological
characteristics of these groups were compared. When patients with PCL were
compared according to age groups, it was found that the highest number
of patients were in the 13-18 age group. It was determined that the patients
in the 6-12 age group had fewer lesions, that and the size of the lesions was
smaller than the other groups. The disease duration was the longest in the
0-5 age group. The highest rate of nodular, ulcerated, and recurrent lesions
was in the 13-18 age group, and the highest rate of papular lesions was in the
6-12 age group. Systemic pentavalent antimony therapy (IM or IV) was ad-
ministered to 438 patients with PCL (5.44%), while intralesional pentavalent
antimony therapy (IL) was administered to 7447 patients (92.54%). Patients
receiving systemic therapy had larger lesions compared with patients receiv-
ing IL therapy and no treatment. The lesion duration was longer in patients
who received systemic treatment, and the number of lesions was higher than
those who received IL treatment. The highest rate of systemic treatment was
in the 13-18 age group (43.8%). In conclusion, our study found that the in-
tragroup comparison of the age group with the highest CL rate displayed
similar clinico-epidemiological characteristics reported in previous studies
conducted in the same region.
Keywords
clinical; cutaneous leishmaniasis; epidemiological; pediatric; pentavalent antimony therapy
Hrčak ID:
335585
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2024.
Visits: 146 *