J Korean Pain Soc.  1990 Jun;3(1):40-43.

Ether-Aspirin Topical Application for Herpetic Neuralgia

• Moon WB
• Kim HK
• Back SW
• Kim IS
• Chung KS

Abstract

Herpes zoster is a common, usually self-limited disease distinguished by pain and a characteristic vesicular rash. The clinical onset of herpes zoster is heralded by pain in the area of the affected segment. So herpetic neuralgia is a major complaint from patients visiting the pain clinic. There are several methods for the treatment of herpetic neuralgia, but there is no method that results in complete remission. In 198S, King introduced the chloroform-aspirin topical application method. This method is known to be a very simple and effective treatment of acute herpetic neuralgia and postherpetic neuralgia. We used diethyl ether instead of chloroform as the solvent and treated 12 patients; 7 patients with herpetic neuralgia and 5 patients with postherpetic neuralgia. The results were follows, 1) The treatment has proved to be highly effective in relieving pain in acute herpetic neuralgia. 2) The application was very simple and safe to use and treatment tolerance has been excellent. 3) There were no effective results in postherpetic neuralgia. 4) The topical treatment seemed to promote the healing of the herpetic skin lesion.

MeSH Terms

Chloroform
Ether
Exanthema
Herpes Zoster
Humans
Neuralgia*
Neuralgia, Postherpetic
Pain Clinics
Skin
Chloroform
Ether