After acute shingles is cured, some patients still have persistent pain in the lesion area, called postherpetic neuralgia. Postherpetic neuralgia is a persistent pain that plagues the middle-aged and elderly, lasting from 1-2 years to more than 10 years, and in some cases, more than a few decades. Patients suffer from chronic pain and suffer from low mood, low quality of life, and reduced ability to work and socialize, which is a heavy physical burden. Patients are depressed, lose confidence in life, and even have suicidal tendencies, which is why postherpetic neuralgia is called the “number one pain in the world”.
Mechanism of occurrence
The exact pathogenesis of postherpetic neuralgia is not fully understood, but it is related to the following factors.
1. Older age.
2. Herpes virus infection.
3. Low immunity of the patient.
4, The patient’s idiosyncratic constitution.
5, Untimely treatment after herpes zoster.
6, No aggressive nerve block treatment even though antiviral treatment is administered.
What are the characteristics
1. The rash of herpes zoster is cured, there is persistent or episodic severe pain under the skin in the original rash area, and significant pigmentation of the skin in the affected area is visible.
2. Abnormal sensation and touch of the skin in the affected area, most patients show painful hypersensitivity, unbearable pain can be produced by gentle touch, and some patients are characterized by hyperalgesia.
3.The nature of pain is mainly spontaneous slash-like or lightning-like attack pain or persistent burning pain, and most patients have unbearable pain level.
4.Due to the fear of severe pain, patients have a heavy psychological burden and depression, and are prone to psychological problems.
5.The general pain treatment methods are not effective.
How to treat
Conventional analgesic treatment is less effective. At present, most advocate a combination of nerve block, intradermal injection and linear polarized light infrared therapy, which can achieve satisfactory results.
1.Nerve block According to the location of pain, peripheral nerve block, stellate ganglion block or epidural block can be used, and the corresponding paraneoplastic injection of adriamycin can be used for the treatment of intractable pain.
2.Intradermal injection is a new treatment method recently promoted, that is, intradermal injection of analgesic mixture in the corresponding skin area, once a week, usually three times, with satisfactory effect, safety and few side effects.
3.Linear polarized light infrared irradiation: irradiate the painful area and the corresponding lesion nerve trunk or ganglion.
4.Medication: In recent years, some people applied gabapentin to treat postherpetic neuralgia, which can achieve better results.
How to prevent postherpetic neuralgia
1, enhance physical fitness, improve their own immunity.
2, in the early stage of acute herpes zoster, nerve block treatment, the method not only analgesic effect, but also can significantly improve local blood circulation, accelerate the healing of the lesion rash and prevent the occurrence of post-acute herpes zoster neuralgia.
3. In the acute herpes zoster phase, early analgesic treatment is performed to prevent the central sensitization of pain.