Epidemiological and Clinical Study on Herpes Zoster in the Province of Chungcheongnam-do (2004~2006)

Kim, Yun Mi; Lee, Sung Yul; Lee, Jong Suk; Park, Young Lip; Whang, Kyu Uang; Cho, Moon Kyun; Park, Eun Jung

Abstract

BACKGROUND
As the proportion of old-aged people is currently increasing, the incidence of herpes zoster is also increasing. Yet there has not been any report on the epidemiology of herpes zoster in the Province of Chungcheongnam-do.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of herpes zoster in the Province of Chungcheongnam-do.
METHODS
The authors retrospectively evaluated 915 cases of herpes zoster with regard to the annual, monthly and seasonal incidences, the age and gender ratios, the associated conditions, the anatomical distribution and the complications at the Department of Dermatology in Soonchunhyang University hospital in Cheonan during 3 years from 2004 to 2006.
RESULTS
The results were as follows: The annual rate of new outpatients at our dermatology clinic ranged from 1.6% to 1.9% (mean: 1.7%), and the ratio of males to females was 0.74:1. The peak incidence on monthly analysis was in August and the lowest incidence on the monthly and seasonal analysis were in February and winter for the herpes zoster inpatients. Herpes zoster was seen most frequently in the over 70 year-old group (38.0%). The most frequent involved dermatome of the herpes zoster inpatients was the thoracic dermatome (35.4%) and others included the trigeminal (26.9%), lumbar (13.8%), cervical (11.5%) and sacral (2.7%) areas. 26 (8.8%) patients had disease involving 2 different dermatomes. Of the 297 herpes zoster inpatients, associated conditions were observed for 167 patients (56.2%); hypertension (32.1%), diabetes (17.5%), malignancy (10.4%), asthma (7.5%) and so on. Complications were observed for 121 (40.7%) inpatients and the most common complication was postherpetic neuralgia (30.0%), followed by secondary bacterial infection (9.8%), ophthalmologic complications (7.7%), neurogenic bladder (1.4%) and so on.
CONCLUSION
The results of our study showed higher proportions of females and old-age people with herpes zoster and a higher proportion of old-age people with postherpetic neuralgia.