Response to transforaminal epidural block as a useful predictive factor of postherpetic neuralgia

Junghyun Park, Su Jin Baek, So Hye Baek, Eung Don Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite the high frequency of nerve blocks in the acute phase of herpes zoster, factors associated with intervention, such as response to epidural block, have not been analyzed as predictive factors of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). To determine the predictive factors of progression to PHN in the presence of interventions, we analyzed the medical records of 145 patients who underwent transforaminal epidural injection (TFEI) in the acute phase of herpes zoster. A total volume of 5 mL (a mixture of 0.5% lidocaine and 5 mg dexamethasone) was injected during TFEI. Corticosteroid was used only for the first TFEI. Clinical data of age, sex, involved dermatome, presence of comorbidity, time from zoster onset to first TFEI, numerical rating scale (NRS) before TFEI, NRS at 1 week and 1, 3, and 6 months after the first TFEI, and number of TFEI were collected and analyzed. Through multivariate logistic regression analysis, pain improvement less than 50% at 1 week after the first TFEI was a strong predictive factor of progression of PHN at all time points. Response to TFEI appears to be a stronger predictive factor of progression to PHN than patient factors of sex, age, degree of initial pain, and presence of co-morbidity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number323
JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.

Keywords

  • Epidural block
  • Herpes zoster
  • Postherpetic neuralgia
  • Predictive factor
  • Transforaminal

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Response to transforaminal epidural block as a useful predictive factor of postherpetic neuralgia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this