Efficacy of Vitamin C Combined with Famciclovir in the Treatment of Post-Herpetic Neuralgia

Abstract

The present randomized controlled, double blinded interventional clinical study aimed to investigate the efficacy of vitamin C combined with famciclovir in post-herpetic neuralgia. The patients in the control group (n = 43) were intravenously given with famciclovir (0.25 g/day) while patients in the observation group (n = 43) were intravenously given with vitamin C combined with famciclovir. The clinical observation indexes, changes of pain score, immune cytokines, and complications were compared between the two groups. Compared with the control group, the observation group had higher total effective rate, shorter blister-stopping time, crusting time, and pain-relieving time. After treatment for 14 days, the visual analogue scale score in the observation group was 0.54 ± 0.17, which was lower than the control group (2.72 ± 0.43). After treatment, serum interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 levels were significantly lower in the observation group than the control group. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups. However, the number of rescue medication in the observation group was lower than the control group. To sum up, famciclovir combined with vitamin C in the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia can improve the cured rate of the disease, which is worthy of clinical application.