The Short- and Long-Term Risk of Stroke after Herpes Zoster: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence indicates that stroke risk may be increased following herpes zoster. The aim of this study is to perform a meta-analysis of current literature to systematically analyze and quantitatively estimate the short and long-term effects of herpes zoster on the risk of stroke. METHODS: Embase, PubMed and Cochrane library databases were searched for relevant studies up to March 2016. Studies were selected for analysis based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. Relative risks with 95% confidence interval (CI) were extracted to assess the association between herpes zoster and stroke. RESULTS: A total of 8 articles were included in our analysis. The present meta-analysis showed that the risks of stroke after herpes zoster were 2.36 (95% CI: 2.17–2.56) for first 2 weeks, 1.56 (95% CI: 1.46–1.66) for first month, 1.17 (95% CI: 1.13–1.22) for first year, and 1.09 (95% CI: 1.02–1.16) for more than 1 year, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of our study demonstrated that herpes zoster was associated with a higher risk of stroke, but the risks decreased along with the time after herpes zoster.