Abstract

HIGH DOSE ORAL PREDNISOLONE IN PATIENTS WITH HERPES ZOSTER FOR PREVENTING POST HERPETIC NEURALGIA

Sehdev Singh*

Abstract

Background: Post herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a common, serious, painful neuropathic complication of herpes zoster (HZ), persisting after 30 days of onset of lesions when the cutaneous lesions have healed.. The study was conducted between Jul 2015 to to Jun 2017 in seventy eight patients to study role of high dose oral prednisolne in preventing post herpetic neuralgia. Methods: Prospective, randomized, comparative study was carried out in tertiary care hospital. Seventy eight consecutive cases of herpes zoster including indoor, OPD and referred cases were included in the study. The patients were initiated on either Acyclovir plus placebo (A group) or Acyclovir plus oral steroids (B group). The patients were followed up after 30 days, 120 days and 180 days and the results were analysed. Results: The incidence of PHN after 30 days was 27.5% in patients treated with acyclovir and 7.89% treated with acyclovir plus prednisolone in the overall age group of 21-80 years. The incidence of PHN was also noted in significantly less no of patients treated with oral prednisolone especially over 50 years of age, however there was no significant difference between two groups after 120 and 180 days. Conclusion: PHN is a common serious complication and cause of morbidity in patients with herpes Zoster which requires treatment with oral prednisolone to reduce the incidence of acute PHN especially in patients over 50 years of age.

Keywords: Herpes zoster; post herpetic neuralgia; Acyclovir; Prednisolone.