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Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection
Postherpetic pruritus is an uncommon adverse sequela of Varicella zoster infection. It can present with or without prior postherpetic neuralgia. A 57-year-old woman who developed persistent postherpetic pruritus following a Varicella zoster infection, affecting the skin between her right thoracic fi...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6823016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31720141 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5665 |
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author | Hassan, Shahzeb Cohen, Philip R |
author_facet | Hassan, Shahzeb Cohen, Philip R |
author_sort | Hassan, Shahzeb |
collection | PubMed |
description | Postherpetic pruritus is an uncommon adverse sequela of Varicella zoster infection. It can present with or without prior postherpetic neuralgia. A 57-year-old woman who developed persistent postherpetic pruritus following a Varicella zoster infection, affecting the skin between her right thoracic fifth to eighth dermatomes is described; she did not have postherpetic neuralgia. Her condition did not improve with systemic antiviral or gabapentin treatment; however, nine years later, she exhibited significant relief after two months of acyclovir 800 mg five times daily. In summary, postherpetic pruritus is a potential complication that can occur alone or in combination with postherpetic neuralgia. Some patients with postherpetic pruritus have a treatment-refractory disease. However, other patients respond to gabapentin; yet, long-term interventions may be necessary for persistent pruritus. Our patient’s pruritus significantly improved after restarting systemic antiviral therapy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6823016 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68230162019-11-12 Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection Hassan, Shahzeb Cohen, Philip R Cureus Dermatology Postherpetic pruritus is an uncommon adverse sequela of Varicella zoster infection. It can present with or without prior postherpetic neuralgia. A 57-year-old woman who developed persistent postherpetic pruritus following a Varicella zoster infection, affecting the skin between her right thoracic fifth to eighth dermatomes is described; she did not have postherpetic neuralgia. Her condition did not improve with systemic antiviral or gabapentin treatment; however, nine years later, she exhibited significant relief after two months of acyclovir 800 mg five times daily. In summary, postherpetic pruritus is a potential complication that can occur alone or in combination with postherpetic neuralgia. Some patients with postherpetic pruritus have a treatment-refractory disease. However, other patients respond to gabapentin; yet, long-term interventions may be necessary for persistent pruritus. Our patient’s pruritus significantly improved after restarting systemic antiviral therapy. Cureus 2019-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6823016/ /pubmed/31720141 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5665 Text en Copyright © 2019, Hassan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Dermatology Hassan, Shahzeb Cohen, Philip R Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title | Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title_full | Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title_fullStr | Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title_full_unstemmed | Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title_short | Postherpetic Pruritus: A Potential Complication of Herpes Zoster Virus Infection |
title_sort | postherpetic pruritus: a potential complication of herpes zoster virus infection |
topic | Dermatology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6823016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31720141 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5665 |
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