Treatment of herpetic pain : effect of early sympathtic never blocks

We studied the effect of regional sympathetic never blocks in the treatment of 108 in-patients with herpes zoster (HZ) in our pain clinic. Eighty four percent of the patients were over 50 years of age, but no correlation was found between the patients' age and the cure rate. In patients who were treated within 14 days after the onset of the disease (fresh group) , HZ healed at the significantly higher rate (86%) than in those who were over 2 weeks after the onset (obsolete group) did (62%). Vidarabine had no significant effect for the teatment of herpetic pain.