• Ming-Xing Liu, Jun Zhong, Jin Zhu, Lei Xia, and Ning-Ning Dou.
• Department of Neurosurgery, XinHua Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
• Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 2015 Jan 1; 93 (3): 178-81.

BackgroundPostherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is the most common complication following an episode of acute herpes zoster. The curative effect of current treatments is limited.ObjectivesThe purpose of this paper is to report a new treatment for PHN with a combination of dorsal root entry zone lesion (DREZotomy) and spinal cord stimulation (SCS).MethodsMicrosurgical DREZotomy assisted with SCS for target localization was performed in 6 patients with PHN. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the pain pre- and postoperatively.ResultsExcept for 1 patient, in whom the test SCS was unsatisfactory, all patients finally underwent DREZotomy. These 5 patients experienced apparent symptom relief postoperatively, and the VAS score decreased from a baseline of 8.4 ± 1.14 to 2.4 ± 1.14 (p = 0.0020) and did not change significantly during the follow-up of up to 24 months.ConclusionsMicrosurgical DREZotomy assisted with SCS for target localization is an effective remedy for PHN.

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