| ABSTRACT Objective:: To observe the therapeutic effects and safety of post herpetic neuralgia to alleviate post herpetic neuralgia.Methods:180 cases of inpatients clinically diagnosed as herpes zoster were divided into three groups according to the time of their onset. Group A was composed of 60 cases of patients whose time of onset were fewer than 7 days. The patients of Group A were treated with basal therapy plus 10mg dexamethasone, iv,qd for the first 3 days, followed by 5mg dexamethasone, iv,qd for the next 2 days. Group B was composed of 60 cases of patients whose time of onset were more than 7 days. The patients in Group B were treated in the same way as Group A. Group C was composed of 60 cases of patients whose time of onset were fewer than 7 days. Only the basal treatment was applied in Group C. The time of ceasing new blister, time of pain relieving, time of cure and incidence of PHN were compared among the 3 groups. Results: There was no significant difference in terms of the time of ceasing new blister and the time of cure among the 3 groups (P>0.05), whereas significant difference were found in terms of the time of pain relieving and the incidence of PHN (P<0.05). Conclusion: The early stage usage of glucocorticoid could obviously decrease the time of pain and reduce the incidence of PHN with good safety. Based on the effective anti-virus therapy, glucocorticoid should be applied as soon as possible to treat herpes zoster in middle age and old people to decrease the time of pain and to reduce the incidence of PHN. |
