Prevalence of Hidradenitis Suppurativa in Colombia According to Data from the National Health Registry

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, with a low prevalence worldwide. There is little epidemiologic information available on this disease in Latin America, including Colombia. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and describe the main demographic characteristics of HS in Colombia. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study using the code of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) for HS (L732). For this study, data from the Comprehensive Social Protection Information System of the Ministry of Health of Colombia, which is the database on diagnoses made by physicians in all medical institutions of the country, were analyzed for the period 2013-2017. A total of 3,667 patients of HS were reported in Colombia, with a prevalence of 7.4/100,000 inhabitants; 68% of the patients affected were women, with a woman to man ratio of 2.1:1. The highest prevalence was in the age group of 35-39 years. Among the departments of Colombia, the highest prevalence was in Caldas, with 17 patients per 100,000 inhabitants. Ours was the second study conducted in Latin America on the epidemiology of HS. We found a low prevalence of HS, which was even lower than that reported in studies from other countries.