Assessment of pain in herpes zoster: lessons learned from antiviral trials.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Pain typically accompanies acute herpes zoster and, in a proportion of patients, it persists well beyond rash healing. Pain must therefore be analyzed in trials of antiviral agents in herpes zoster, but different methods have been used to analyze pain in recent published trials. These reports are reviewed and their methodological strengths and weaknesses examined. Based on this review, recommendations for the design and analysis of future trials of antiviral agents in herpes zoster are proposed. The principal recommendation is that antiviral efficacy should be evaluated both by distinguishing post-herpetic neuralgia from acute pain and by considering pain as a continuum. The primary endpoint should address both the prevalence and duration of post-herpetic neuralgia and should be examined in those patients who have post-herpetic neuralgia. Adopting the proposed recommendations in design and analysis of future trials should facilitate comparison across trials of the efficacy of antiviral agents in the treatment of herpes zoster.
منابع مشابه
Antivirals for management of herpes zoster including ophthalmicus: a systematic review of high-quality randomized controlled trials.
BACKGROUND There is lack of consensus from randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of antivirals in the management of herpes zoster. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to provide better understanding of effectiveness of antivirals in management of herpes zoster. METHODS A total of 12 randomized controlled trials with 7,277 patients were included in the review...
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Herpes zoster (Shingles; Zona) is an acute infectious skin disease that is caused by the reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV). After the initial infection (chickenpox) or vaccination, the virus remains inactive or latent in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG); when decreasing cell mediated immunity (CMI) occurs, the virus is reactivated from a latent phase to a lytic phase and frequently repl...
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OBJECTIVE To review the evidence regarding treatment of herpes zoster (HZ) in the short-term, focusing on the prevention of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). QUALITY OF EVIDENCE The evidence relating to treatment of HZ is derived mainly from randomized controlled trials (level I evidence). MAIN MESSAGE Antiviral drugs might have some effect on the severity of acute pain and on the duration of s...
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Antiviral research
دوره 33 2 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1997