Overview: Herpes zoster is a skin disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus and is often associated with significant neuralgia. It predominates in adults. Etiology: The varicella-zoster virus can cause chickenpox or be latently infected (infected with the virus but no symptoms), and later the virus is latent in the posterior spinal root ganglion. Necrosis occurs in the affected nerves, resulting in neuralgia. Performance: Most people have a burning or painful sensation in the skin 1 to 3 days before the onset of the disease, followed by erythema, which is soon followed by rice- to soy-sized blisters, distributed in clusters, with normal skin between clusters of blisters, which can become cloudy and pus-filled after a few days, or partially rupture to form a vesicular surface, and finally dry and crusty. The rash occurs on the chest and back, waist and abdomen, head and face, often arranged in bands, and mostly on one side of the body. In individual cases, the virus may involve the eyes, ears or invade organs such as the lungs and brain. Neuralgia is one of the characteristics of the disease, and the pain varies in severity. Usually, children with shingles have no pain or very mild pain, while older and weaker people have severe or even unbearable pain. The pain mostly disappears after the lesions have completely faded or within 1 month, but in a few patients the neuralgia can last for more than 1 month and is called postherpetic neuralgia. The incidence of postherpetic neuralgia increases with age, and in patients over 40 years of age, the incidence is around 30%, and is common when the trigeminal nerve is involved. Postherpetic neuralgia can be persistent burning pain with sensory hypersensitivity, or paroxysmal stabbing pain, with varying degrees of pain. 90% of patients can induce pain with normal local skin stimulation, which is a characteristic of postherpetic neuralgia. Treatment: The principles of treatment for this disease are antiviral, pain relief, anti-inflammatory, and prevention of complications. In general, antiviral drugs and nerve-nourishing drugs are given according to the severity of the disease, and painkillers are used as appropriate when the pain is obvious, while local irradiation such as helium-neon laser can be used to relieve pain and promote the drying and crusting of lesions. After the disease is healed, a longer-lasting immunity can be obtained, and usually no recurrence.