Oral lesions in borderline and reactional tuberculoid leprosy.

Thirty patients, fifteen with borderline and fifteen with reactional tuberculoid leprosy, were submitted to clinical and histopathologic studies of the buccal mucosa for detection of specific lesions. Five reactional tuberculoid and eight borderline patients presented specific conditions characterized by chronic granulomatous lesions with bacilli, chronic granulomatous lesions without bacilli, and nonspecific chronic inflammatory lesions with bacilli. The infiltrate had small extension, low bacterial levels and the mucosa, with the exception of one case, did not show ulceration. These results suggest that in the reactional tuberculoid and borderline patients the buccal mucosa is not an important source of bacilli elimination.