Demography, symptomatology, and course of disease in ambulatory zoster patients

This survey summarises the observations of physicians who prospectively rec orded clinically relevant data on their patients with an episode of herpes tester. These included demography of patients, signs and symptoms during th e prodromal phase, relevant history, description of disease at the first vi sit, therapeutic measures and description of disease, and occurrence of pos therpetic neuralgia (pain 4-5 weeks after crusting) at the second visit. A total of 2,063 patients were reported to the data management centre. The ag e distribution resembles that reported in the literature including the nota ble increase in tester frequency with advancing age. Almost 20% of the pati ents, however, were 30 years old or less, and this contrasts markedly with the published literature. Age modifies the frequency of the dermatome affli cited: more cranial and less thoracic manifestations were observed with inc reasing age. Almost all patients reported symptoms which may be attributed to a prodromal phase, especially pain in the affected dermatome (82%). The incidence of postherpetic neuralgia was 28%. A complicated disease course s uch as visceral, ocular, or otological involvement, or progression to addit ional dermatomes was seen in almost 10% of the patients.