The Short- and Long-Term Risk of Stroke after Herpes Zoster: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND Accumulating evidence indicates that stroke risk may be increased following herpes zoster. The aim of this study is to perform a meta-analysis of current literature to systematically analyze and quantitatively estimate the short and long-term effects of herpes zoster on the risk of stroke. METHODS Embase, PubMed and Cochrane library databases were searched for relevant studies up to March 2016. Studies were selected for analysis based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. Relative risks with 95% confidence interval (CI) were extracted to assess the association between herpes zoster and stroke. RESULTS A total of 8 articles were included in our analysis. The present meta-analysis showed that the risks of stroke after herpes zoster were 2.36 (95% CI: 2.17-2.56) for first 2 weeks, 1.56 (95% CI: 1.46-1.66) for first month, 1.17 (95% CI: 1.13-1.22) for first year, and 1.09 (95% CI: 1.02-1.16) for more than 1 year, respectively. CONCLUSION The results of our study demonstrated that herpes zoster was associated with a higher risk of stroke, but the risks decreased along with the time after herpes zoster.