Causes of herpes zoster, treatments for herpes zoster

Shingles is a common clinical skin disease. Generally speaking, after people become aware of shingles, they will actively look for its cause. So, what are the causes of shingles?

Causes of herpes zoster:

Humans are the only host of the varicella-zoster virus. The virus enters the blood through the respiratory mucosa to form viremia, causing chickenpox or latent infection. The virus can then remain latent in the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord or the sensory ganglia of the cranial nerves for a long time. When the body is exposed to some kind of stimulus (such as trauma, fatigue, malignant tumor or weakness after illness, etc.) that causes the body's resistance to decrease, the latent virus is activated and travels down along the axons of the sensory nerves to the skin of the area innervated by the nerves, where it replicates and produces blisters. At the same time, the affected nerves become inflamed and necrotic, causing neuralgia. After recovery from this disease, more lasting immunity can be obtained, so it generally will not recur.

Treatment for shingles:

1. Drug therapy

(1) Antiviral drugs can be selected from acyclovir, valacyclovir or famciclovir.

(2) Drug treatment for neuralgia: ① The main antidepressants include paroxetine (Ceroxetine), fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxil, sertraline, etc.; ② Anticonvulsants include carbamazepine, sodium valproate, etc. ③Narcotic analgesics include analgesics represented by morphine. The available drugs include morphine (MSContin), hydroxymorphone (OxyContin), oxycodone, fentanyl (Durogesic), dihydroetofen, and Lugaix. ④Non-narcotic analgesics include NSAIDs, tramadol, aconite, capsaicin, etc.

2. Nerve Block

When severe pain is difficult to control with medication, direct and effective sensory nerve block therapy should be considered. The choice of block location should depend on the extent of the disease and its response to treatment. The general principle should be from shallow to deep, from simple to complex, from peripheral to nerve trunks and nerve roots.

3. Nerve damage

Radiofrequency temperature-controlled thermocoagulation for nerve destruction is the most direct and effective treatment method. Neurodestructive treatment also includes medial thalamic stereotactic radiotherapy (Gamma Knife or X-Knife), surgical subdural spinal cord dorsal root destruction, pituitary destruction, sympathetic trunk ganglion destruction, etc.