Introduction:

Leptospirosis is an endemic bacterial infection in Colombia. Its clinical course can be variable and occasionally fatal. There are few studies in the country about severe cases of leptospirosis.

Objectives:

To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with a diagnosis of leptospirosis, and their management in a high complexity hospital.

Materials and methods:

This was a descriptive retrospective study of patients with a serologic diagnosis of leptospirosis between 2010 and 2016.

Results:

We analyzed 87 patients, 74% of them were men, and 84% were older than 18 years; 35% had a comorbidity, the most common being arterial hypertension (16%) and diabetes mellitus (9%). The most frequent symptoms were fever, nausea, fatigue, myalgia, arthralgia, and abdominal pain. The majority of patients required hospitalization in general wards (61%), with a median stay of six days; 34% required management in the intensive care unit, with a median stay of five days. Mortality was 1.1% (n=1). All patients received treatment with either ceftriaxone or doxycycline.

Conclusions:

There is a risk of leptospira infections having a late diagnosis given their unspecific clinical presentation, which generates a high number of differential diagnoses. The early management in the intensive care unit could decrease the incidence of complications and the mortality of patients with leptospirosis.

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