POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CRANIAL NERVES

Abstract

The type of neuralgia which occasionally follows herpes zoster has been, so far as I am aware, almost intractable to treatment. Bailey1expressed the belief that the pain is not susceptible to surgical relief. This author and others—Craig,2Frazier3and Peet4—have asserted that the responsible lesion must be central. That the major pathologic changes in herpes zoster exist in the cerebrospinal ganglia has been clearly demonstrated by Head and Campbell5and others. Consequently, since a major lesion is known to exist in the gasserian ganglion after zoster of trigeminal distribution, it has seemed incredible that section of the fifth sensory root would not abolish the pain. I, as well as others (Harris6), have relieved postherpetic neuralgia in the distribution of one or more spinal nerves by section of posterior roots, but two or three roots above and below the distribution involved must also