The Herpes simplex's reactivation after surgical treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia. A retrospective cohort study.

The Herpes simplex's reactivation after surgical treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia. A retrospective cohort study.

World Neurosurg. 2019 Feb 13;:

Authors: Berra LV, Armocida D, Pesce A, Di Rita A, Santoro A

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) reactivation after surgical procedure for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) has been known and recognized since a long time. To date, only few studies, focused on this complication and at present its real incidence remains unknown. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the real incidence of postoperative Herpes Labialis in a cohort of patients treated alternatively with PBC or MVD to outline potentially significant differences among different treatments.
METHODS: In the period between 2010 and 2017, 92 patients were operated on for TN with MVD (Group A) or PBC (Group B) and retrospectively evaluated for this study. The two subgroups of patients were compared according to history of previous Herpes Labialis, the incidence of postoperative Herpes Labialis.
RESULTS: The final cohorts consisted of respectively 56 males and 36 females. The average age was 58.50 years; 30 male patients belonged to Group A while the remaining to Group B. The incidence of episodes of Herpes Labialis during the life, prior to the operation was 18/58 patients in Group A (31.0%) and 12/34 in Group B (35.3%) with no statistically significant difference among subgroups, while postoperatively 1/56 experienced an Herpes Labialis condition for what the Group A (1.7%) is concerned versus 5/34 in regards to Group B (14.7%), with a strong stastically significant difference between the two subgroups.
CONCLUSIONS: In our clinical experience, HSV reactivation after surgery for TN is a not so rare and still not completely understood eventuality. The postoperative HSV reactivation could result as a consequence of a direct mechanical injury on Gasserian ganglion neurons, more common after PBC.

PMID: 30771541 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

from A via a.sfakia on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2V6OxzN