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.