Facial Palsy Accompanied with Herpes Zoster on the Cervical Dermatome -A case report-

상 경부 대상포진에 병발한 안면신경 마비 -증례 보고-

We treated a 56 year old male ailing of painful herpetic eruption on his 2nd, 3rd and 4th left cervical spinal segment. On the 18th day, patient also suffered an abrupt left facial palsy, accompanied with ongoing postherpetic neuralgia even though the skin eruption had been cured. This patient visited our pain clinic on his 46th day of illness and was teated with continuous cervical epidural block for 9 days, and stellate ganglion block plus oral analgesics and antidepressant for 12 days. The combination of treatments resulted in marked improvement of facial palsy and postherpetic neuralgia. A possible explanation of facial palsy accompanied with herpes zoster on cervical spinal segment could be related to Hunt's hypothesis that geniculate ganglion forms a chain connecting the high cervical ganglion below. Another possibility may be related to a compression injury of the facial nerve by long-term severe edema on the soft tissue of the face, the periauricular area and parotid gland around the facial nerve, and edema on the facial nerve itself emerging out from the cranium.