Results of nerve block treatment in 1,000 patients with zoster-related pain
Noda, B.; Dan, K.; Higa, K.; Manabe, H.
Masui. Japanese Journal of Anesthesiology 35(7): 1099-1106
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-4892 PMID: 3773256 Document Number: 284400
The results of nerve block treatment of zoster-related pain in 1,000 patients, [700 were within 14 days after the onset of skin rash (fresh group) and 300 were over 2 weeks after the onset (obsolete group)] were analyzed. A questionnaire concerning the residual pain due to zoster was sent to each patient 6 months after completion of the treatment. Seven hundred and forty-nine patients replied. The percentage of patients with residual pain over 10% of that of the pretreatment level was 11.7% of 529 patients in the fresh group. The percentages were 13.6% of 96 patients for whom the treatment had been started between two weeks and one month, and 60.5% of 124 patients for whom the treatment had started more than one month after the onset of zoster. The satisfactory results of nerve block treatment were almost the same regardless of the affected regions, including the trigeminal zoster. The durations of treatment required for almost complete pain relief, however, differed among the affected regions. The mean days of treatment in the trigeminal, cervical, thoracic, and lumbo-sacral zoster in the fresh group were 37, 27, 22, and 23 days respectively. The duration of treatment for trigeminal zoster was significantly longer than thoracic (P < 0.001) and lumbo-sacral zoster (P < 0.01) in the fresh group. The patients older than sixty needed a significanty longer duration of treatment than their means in cervical (P < 0.05), and thoracic region (P < 0.01). Those whose zoster lesion was severe required a significantly longer treatment than their means in the trigeminal (P < 0.01), cervical (P < 0.05), and thoracic region (P < 0.01), in the fresh group. The older the patients, the more severe was the zoster lesion (P = 0.029). The severity of zoster lesion as well as the age of the patient are important to decide the duration of the nerve block treatment of zoster-related pain.