[Treatment of Buruli ulcer desease by excision and skin graft].
BACKGROUND
Buruli ulcer is the most common mycobacteria disease after leprosy and tuberculosis. The purpose of our study is to make our contribution to the surgical treatment of Buruli ulcer and to asses our results.


METHODS
One hundred eighteen patients presenting progressive Buruli ulcers were operated on. The surgical procedure included excisions for necrotic lesions and grafts for clean wounds. The results were estimated on the time of hospitalization and appearance of complications.


RESULTS
Seventy-three patients (62%) were subjected to excision followed by thin skin grafts and 35 patients (30%) were subjected to grafts only. The number of excision times varies from 1 to 7 per patient and from 1 to 4 for the skin grafts. All our patients heal within a period of 120 days with extremes going from 14 to 265 days. We deplored 26 complications (22%): eight new focus, seven infectious complications, six recurrences, five stiffnesses and ankyloses.


CONCLUSIONS
The treatment of Buruli ulcer by excision and grafts is efficient but does not prevent recurrences and new focus from happening and for their prevention, it is necessary to discover pharmaceutical molecules that are efficient on Mycobacterium ulcerans.
Ouattara
D
D
Service de chirurgie maxillofaciale et plastique, centre hospitalier intercommunal de Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, 40, allée de la Source, 94195 Villeneuve-Saint-Georges cedex, France.
Meningaud
J P
JP
Kaba
L
L
Sica
A
A
Asse
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000601:surgery*; D019911:Mycobacterium ulcerans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016038:Skin Transplantation