[Clinical and socio-medical aspects of long term uricostatic treatment of primary gout (a 5-10 year study)].

In 60 patients (48 cases were evaluated) with primary gout a longterm therapy (5--10 years) with Allopurinol was performed. Without treatment 4.4 sudden onsets of gout per patient and year were registrated; under Allopurinol only 0.062 (p less than 0.001) onsets were observed. This resulted in a large decrease in hospitalisation time from 44 days to 0.62 days per patient and year. In the majority of cases involution or diminuation of the tophi was found. In 7 cases of nephrolithiasis no further renal colic took place. In 8.3% a skin rasch and in 12.5% a slight gastrointestinal side effect was observed. Together with the clinical results the socio-medical aspects are discussed and the importance of gout in respect to the socioeconomic point of view is pointed out.