<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I have been following the correspondence on heat therapy with interest, having explored it myself in the past.<div><br></div><div>There are two forms of heat therapy. The first uses heat physiologically to promote natural healing, while the second uses heat as form of cautery to burn out the lesion.</div><div><br></div><div>To promote natural healing, heat is applied to the skin at temperatures in the range 37-40oC. Many species of cutaneous Leishmania do not survive at 37oC and lymphocytes act most efficiently at 40oC. This form of therapy disadvantages the parasite and advantages the host. Temperatures must be accurately applied because the skin burns at 42-45oC, depending on the method and duration of application. The difficulty of this approach is how to achieve accurate delivery and maintain the temperature for many hours per day over many days. Infra-red treatment, as introduced by George Rahim in Baghdad, probably comes into this category; heat from a lamp was applied through a cone, but temperature control was difficult and it was not easy to prevent burns. At the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London, we developed a method whereby a fine coiled wire was imbedded in a flexible pad made from the stuff that dentists use for making plates. Pads could be custom made, for example to fit the pinna of an ear. A thermistor was incorporated alongside the heating wire in the pad with feedback to the power box so as to maintain an accurate-ish temperature. Nevertheless it was difficult absolutely to prevent burns and patients were effectively tied to the machine for long periods of time. The method worked reasonably well, but we abandoned it as impractical. Eduardo Missoni wrote up some case histories; but we never published anything formally. </div><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 4.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'"><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 4.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> Missoni E. Heat treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Trop Doct. 1984;14:46</span></font></i>.</p></p></div><div>WRAIR developed a method whereby water from a water-bath was pumped through an intravenous fluid bag that was applied over the lesion. But I understand that the system did not seem practiacble and was not taken forward. </div><div><br></div><div>Heat cautery burns out the lesions, and the Thermomed instrument that delivers a temperature of 50oC between two electrodes implanted into the lesion comes into this category. It must of course be used with local anaesthetic. I have never used it; but its advantage seems to be that it is painless, and effective, often at a single setting if the lesions is small. John David speaks very highly of it. It is not suitable for all lesions and there can be complications. see </div><div><a href="http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CMS2Web/ShowRecord.asp?LinkFrom=OAI&ID=32010001498">http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CMS2Web/ShowRecord.asp?LinkFrom=OAI&ID=32010001498</a> </div><div>for example: "Post treatment wound care is essential, as blistering and secondary infection are the most common adverse effects." With a power box to carry around and electrodes to sterilise, i don't know how useful it may be under field conditions.</div><div><br></div><div>Cryotherapy and simple curettage are other techniques that have been used successfully to destroy leishmanial sores.</div><div><br></div><div>Curettage requires local anaesthetic, but is simple to perform. The curette can be cleaned and safely sterilised by flaming in small steel dish with a few ml of methylated spirit (wait a moment before picking up the curette). Currie published a small study, and was pleased with the results.</div><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 4.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Trebuchet MS'"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> Currie MA. Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis by curettage. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1983;287:1105-1106.</span></font></i></p></div><div>If I were looking for a simple portable method of treatment in the field I would seriously consider curettage under local anaesthetic. Perhaps there is a dermato-leishmaniac out there who would like to compare curettage with intralesional SSG? But please plan the study carefully - the literature on treatment of CL is littered with uninterpretable publications. It's time we got our act together.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Anthony Bryceson</div><div><br></div><div><div>
</div>
<br><div><div>On 6 Jun 2011, at 17:02, Chang, Kwang-Poo wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region">
<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="word-wrap: break-word;
-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;-webkit-line-break: after-white-space">
<div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">Any chance to make it available for
additional trials elsewhere ?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">I recall your statement in our
conversation about the advantage of this instrument over the heating lamp. That
is to maintain the specific elevated temperature uniformly throughout the skin
lesion for a sustained period. The 50 C must be the effective temperature that
has been experimentally determined. It seems to be a tolerable temperature to
human skin ? Dr. Sharma may comment on this medically as a dermatologist
?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">KP<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">
<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center" tabindex="-1">
</span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma"> John David
[mailto:jdavid@hsph.harvard.edu] <br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, June 05, 2011 11:18
PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> Chang, Kwang-Poo<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Cc:</span></b> Sharmanl; Satoskar, Abhay;
Raj; Petr Volf; <a href="mailto:leish-l@lineu.icb.usp.br">leish-l@lineu.icb.usp.br</a>; <a href="mailto:hgoto@usp.br">hgoto@usp.br</a>;
<a href="mailto:elfadil_abass@yahoo.com">elfadil_abass@yahoo.com</a>; <a href="mailto:vishwamohan_katoch@yahoo.co.in">vishwamohan_katoch@yahoo.co.in</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Leish-l] inquiry</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">The Themomed instrument shown below can produce accurate 50 degrees C
plus or minus 0.2 degrees temperature by radio wave.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">from Themorsurgery Technologies. Picture below.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">Two papers of a trial in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>
and one in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
on CL below.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>Leish-l mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Leish-l@lineu.icb.usp.br">Leish-l@lineu.icb.usp.br</a><br>http://lineu.icb.usp.br/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/leish-l<br></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>