In particular, neuropathic pain is a major form of chronic pain. This type of pain results from dysfunction or lesions in the central and peripheral nervous system. Capsaicin has been traditionally utilized as a medicine to remedy pain. However, the effectiveness and safety of this practice is still elusive. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to investigate the effect of topical capsaicin ...

Introduction. Postherpetic neuralgia is a common sequela of herpes zoster (shingles), in which chronic pain may last for weeks to years. Currently, available treatments include systemic opioid analgesics, tricyclic antidepressants, corticosteroids, and anticonvulsants, as well as topical capsaicin and lidocaine. These treatments are commonly unsatisfactory, with fewer than half of treated patie...

Herpes zoster (shingles), a painful and disabling disease, affects an estimated 1 million individuals in the United States annually and results in significant morbidity, lost productivity, and diminished quality of life. Herpes zoster constitutes the reactivation of varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox. After resolution of chickenpox, VZV remains dormant in dorsal...

Dr McCarberg is Assistant Clinical Professor (voluntary), University of California School of Medicine, Boarded in Family Medicine, Geriatrics, and Pain Medicine, Family Medicine Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, California. Conflict of Interest: The author reports serving on the speaker’s bureau for Eli Lilly, Endo, Forest, Janssen, Ligand, Organon, Ortho-McNeil, Pfizer Inc, PriCara, and Purdue. Of...

Vol. 27, No. 6, 2015 771 Received December 18, 2014, Revised January 20, 2015, Accepted for publication February 5, 2015 *These authors contributed equally to this work. Corresponding author: Do Won Kim, Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University Hospital, 130, Dongdeok-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu 41944, Korea. Tel: 82-53-420-5838, Fax: 82-53-426-0770, E-mail: kimdw@knu.ac.kr This is an Op...

Although there are various treatments for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), none produces definitive effects. We report a case of 72-year-old woman who developed intractable PHN of the chest in which treatment with endoscopic transthoracic sympathicotomy (ETS) produced long-term effective results. When hyperesthesia of the sympathetic nerve participates in PHN, the blocking of sympathetic excitatio...

The sudden, stabbing, paroxysmal pain of neuralgia is the fiercest agony that a patient may experience in his life. Many varied medical treatments and surgical procedures have been suggested in the literature for neuralgic pain. Most of the patients fail to respond to medical treatments or succumb to complications of total anesthesia owing to surgical procedures. Herein, we tried a new treatmen...

Gabapentin is approved to treat postherpetic neuralgia and epilepsy with partial-onset seizures. The large majority of gabapentin prescribing off label. may be abused for euphoria, potentiating the high from opiates, reduction alcohol cravings, a cocaine-like high, as well sedation or sleep. Individuals at highest risk abusing include those opioid abuse, mental illness, previous history prescri...