The pain of shingles - what are the causes, symptoms and treatment?

The pain of shingles - what are the causes, symptoms and treatment?

One hardly ever equates back pain with herpes zoster or shingles. However, when there are sores in the lumbar region caused by this infectious disease, severe and debilitating pain is sure to be known. This problem is known as post-herpetic neuralgia name, and the pain caused by this condition is called shingles pain.

What is Shingles?

A contagious disease, herpes zoster is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VCV). In patients who have undergone chickenpox when they were young, the virus would infect dorsal root ganglia nerve where it would remain in a latent state. Shingles virus occurs when Timer is enabled by an unknown process. Although herpes zoster can occur at any age, it usually spotted in adults and particularly in the elderly time.

Signs and symptoms of herpes zoster

In the dermatome of the skin, vesicular rash will develop, similar to chickenpox, but the eruption, and they will develop unilaterally or on one side. However, unlike chickenpox is itching, sores of herpes zoster are excruciatingly painful, usually because they follow the nerve branches in the dermatome. Dermatome areas that are frequently associated in the shingles are T-3 to L-3 and the lower back. Very often, even before lesions appear after 48 to 72 hours, the pain will be experienced in the dermatome as the condition begins to occur. The pain at this stage is called acute neuritis.

Although time the disease is between 7 to 10 days, it can take as long as 2-4 weeks before the skin returns to normal health and pain disappears.

How shingles pain Develops

Acute neuritis post-herpetic neuralgia. After several months or years that the disease has been solved instances 50% of shingles patients who are 50 and over, can occur with this disease again. This is called post-herpetic neuralgia.

Rare in younger age groups, post-herpetic neuralgia is the most unbearable complication of herpes zoster and it can occur in normal and immunocompromised people. This problem is largely a disease of the elderly. Hypoesthesia and hyperesthesia, which are lower and stimulate irregular sensitivity to sensory stimuli, respectively, can also be experienced in the dermatome damaged, apart from the unbearable pain.

How to treat shingles pain

In early disease, famciclover, a drug of choice for herpes zoster, is expected to prevent further problems post-herpetic neuralgia.

It can be very difficult to manage a patient undergoing post-herpetic neuralgia. For some patients, non-prescription NSAIDs help reduce the problem, while for other types of drugs used in conjunction with more severe tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline and fluphenazine are needed to reduce the situation. Patient monitoring is essential so careful to protect against drug addiction.

Pain relief for 4 to 12 hours may be given to the application of lidocaine skin patches. Not only will it facilitate acute neuritis, corticosteroids may also be used to protect against the occurrence of post-herpetic neuralgia. Manufactured by Merck, the vaccine Zostavax is not only effective for shingles, but it can also protect against post-herpetic neuralgia. It is preferable to administer Zostavax for people over the age of 60 years.

Currently, when it comes to shingles, there are many treatment options out there. When a valuable remedy is seen, it could provide the fight against the deep pain for shingles for the rest of their lives.