A Clinical Study of Herpes Zoster in Children / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster is a common dermatologic disorder. However, there has been no reported study of herpes zoster in children exclusively in the Korean literature. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze epidemiological features and clinical characteristics of herpes zoster in children. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed by reviewing the medical records of 64 patients who were under 12 years old and who had herpes zoster. We searched for cases occurring during a 10-year-period from January 2000 to December 2009. We analyzed for age, gender, accompanying symptoms, dermatomal distribution, underlying disease, treatment and complications. RESULTS: Children under 12 years old account for 2.48% of all herpes zoster patients. The ratio of males to females is 11. The number of enrolled patients was increasing according to age (p=0.0004). The number (p=0.0009) and the proportion (p=0.0187) of pediatric patients has been increasing year by year. Underlying diseases were observed in 17.2%, and included asthma, atopic dermatitis, chronic sinusitis, epilepsy and tic disorder. There was no patient with immunocompression. Lesions of herpes zoster were most frequently found in the trigeminal dermatome (35.9%), followed by the thoracic (34.4%), cervical (14.1%), lumbar (9.4%), and sacral (4.7%) dermatomes, and multiple involvement (1.16%). Pain accompanying herpes zoster was reported in 54.7% and pruritus in 71.9%. Complications were observed in 14.1%; the most common one was eye involvement. CONCLUSION: The incidence of accompanying pain in children with herpes zoster is lower than in adults with this disease. However, the incidence of accompanying pruritus was higher in children than in adults. Postherpetic neuralgia did not developed in children.