The following article is going to be published next month. A 10 year longitudinal study found the prevalence of JORRP in people under 20 to be between .6-1.1 per 100,000 people with prevalence higher in the younger patients. As with most research articles published about RRP in the last few years, the authors wonder what the impact of the HPV vaccine will be on rates of JORRP and RRP.
Estimating the prevalence of and treatment patterns for juvenile onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis in Australia pre-vaccination: a pilot study: Novakovic D, Cheng AT, Cope DH, Brotherton JM. Sex Health. 2010 Sep;7(3):253-61. PMID: 20719212 [PubMed – in process
Abstract
Background: Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) causes serious morbidity. RRP in Australia may be eliminated in the near future following the implementation of a national vaccination program using a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that protects against infection with HPV types 6 and 11, those responsible for RRP. Baseline data on RRP prevalence and disease burden in Australia are lacking. Methods: Three study methods were used to estimate the burden of juvenile onset RRP in Australia. We conducted a retrospective chart review of RRP cases treated at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead over 10 years, examined the coding of these cases, and then calculated and applied the positive predictive value of the codes to national data to estimate the prevalence of RRP in Australia. We also conducted an online survey of otolaryngologists in Australia who manage RRP. Results: Nineteen patients were treated at the hospital over 10 years, involving 359 admissions. We estimate that between 33 and 56 RRP cases aged <20 are being treated nationally per year (0.6-1.1 per 100 000 persons), with children 5-9 years having a higher estimated rate of 1.2-1.8 per 100 000. Among 39 otolaryngologists treating juvenile onset RRP, the majority (73%) treated RRP in a paediatric tertiary hospital, and used the microdebrider for ablation of lesions. Conclusions: Our estimates of RRP disease burden agree with international estimates. As a small number of clinicians treat RRP nationally, we believe that establishment of a national RRP register is both feasible and necessary to monitor the impact of vaccination.
