Morbidity characteristics of patients with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA).

BACKGROUND

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is a congenital autonomic sensory neuropathy. In southern Israel, there are many patients with this disease. We here tried to characterize the different infections acquired by children with CIPA.

METHODS

We collected all the available data about CIPA patients in southern Israel in the year 1991-2005, including the lesion types, area in the body where the infection occurs, and the treatment given.

RESULTS

The current study included 30 children with CIPA, out of 44 known CIPA patients in southern Israel (68.2%). A total of 382 different episodes of infections, fever, orthopedic lesions, and jaw and mouth lesions led our patients to our outpatient clinic or resulted in hospitalization.

CONCLUSION

We found that children with CIPA mainly have infections of the skin and skeleton, and that the most frequent pathogen is Staphylococcus aureus. We also found that a fair amount of these pathogens are resistant to conventional treatment regimens.