Treatment of herpes zoster and PHN 1. Antivirals: Treatment with intravenous acyclovir in patients with severe immune impairment reduces the risk of complications. However, acyclovir is not effective in chronic PHN. Therefore, it is not indicated for patients with diagnosed PHN.2. Steroids: Steroids do not prevent PHN, although they do improve pain in the acute phase, and one needs to question whether it is cost-effective to obtain their extremely limited efficacy with the increased side effects of steroids. Once a diagnosis of PHN is made, steroids do not have an analgesic effect. Pain Department, Foshan Chancheng District Central Hospital, Jian Zhou 3. Skin surface medications Many skin surface medications have been used successfully for acute herpes zoster and PHN. these include iodoside solution, vincristine iontophoresis solution, acyclovir ointment, capsaicin ointment, powdered aspirin with chloroform or ether as the solvent, EMLA ointment, benzathine (eucalyptus) ointment, and chloroethane spray. Recently, lidocaine patches have shown to be effective in relieving pain abnormalities in PHN and are now widely used in the U.S. 4. AnticonvulsantsAnticonvulsants have been used successfully in the treatment of PHN. they appear to be the most effective drugs for treating pinprick-like pain in PHN. Carbamazepine is the most widely used. Recent data indicate that gabapentin is quite effective in controlling neurogenic pain, including PHN, with minimal side effects.5. Sleeping drugs phenothiazines and benzodiazepines are not effective in treating PHN by themselves, but can be used synergistically with tricyclics and analgesics because of their anxiolytic and antiemetic effects.6. Psychological treatment of PHN pain is widely reported in the literature, and depression becomes a prominent feature of patients with PHN. A distinctive feature, patients are often suicidal. Therefore, if necessary, psychological counseling and long-term psychotherapy should form part of the overall treatment process for PHN.7. Nerve blocks are commonly used for herpes zoster pain, and this method focuses the drug on the affected ganglion and sensory nerve fibers, a method called nerve block. The principle of the nerve block method is to inject drugs that have antagonistic effects on pain-causing neurotransmitters and eliminate inflammatory reactions of ganglia and sensory nerve fibers into the affected ganglia and sensory nerve fibers, so that such drugs act directly on the affected ganglia and sensory nerve fibers, resulting in high concentration of drugs at the affected area, fast and strong action, and also blocking nerve conduction pathways, thus producing an obvious pain-relieving effect. On the other hand, it promotes the regeneration of nerve cells and accelerates the repair of damaged ganglia and sensory nerve fibers, so the nerve block method is the main method of treating herpes zoster. There are two types of nerve blocks, one is called intercostal nerve block and the other is called nerve root block. The intercostal nerve block method is not as effective as the nerve root block method for pain relief because the area blocked by the nerve is not as large as the nerve root block method and the concentration of the drug in the affected area is not as high as the nerve root block method. While using anti-herpes virus drugs, intercostal nerve block combined with nerve root block can be used for those with severe disease and severe neuralgia. Based on the early use of antiviral drugs and other comprehensive treatment, nerve block therapy is an effective method to cure early herpes zoster and to prevent PHN.