帯状ほう疹後神経痛に対するＰＧＥ１の治療効果

Abstract

Sympathetic nerve block, periganglionic methylprednisolone injection and antiviral agent therapy have been adopted for treatment of herpetic neuralgia and prevention of post-herpetic neuralgia. Although such therapies are applied at the early stages of the disease, many aged patients suffer from post herpetic neuralgia. During the past five years, 24 post-herpetic neuralgia patients were treated with intravenous prostaglandin E1 (120-180 μg/week) . The pain was reduced at various degrees in all cases. While 13 patients out of 24 had neuralgia in the trigeminal region (group T), the other 11 patients were suffering in the spinal nerve region (group S) . 11 cases in group T and 5 cases in group S exhibited excellent improvement. 2 cases in group T and 6 in group S showed in moderate improvement. Among all 24 cases, 5 cases in group T (group Tp) and 4 in group S (group Sp) received intravenous prostaglandin E1 only. All of group Tp responded excellently to prostaglandin E1, however 3 cases in group Sp revealed only moderate improvement and one case showed no improvement at all. There was a significant difference between group Tp and Sp.The results indicate there is a correlation between the area being treated and the effectiveness of the treatment. Notably the treatment of intravenous prostaglandin E1 was extremely effective when applied to the trigeminal area.