Postzosterneuralgia

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a painful affair. And certainly this clinical picture is not commonplace in osteopathic practice. But I had the opportunity to treat a relative with shingles because of the pain.

The blistering was already completed with him, there was still a rash in the chest and shoulder-neck area. A fairly extensive herpes zoster and accordingly also the pain. A superficial but very stabbing pain was described.

In shingles, the peripheral nerves are affected by chickenpox virus. The blisters on the skin contain an infectious liquid with these viruses. The nerves reach the skin through the superficial fascial layer, so they have to penetrate it.

Fascia contract in the course of scarring or inflammatory disease. That was the starting point for the treatment. The fascia were gently but still painfully stretched. The pain could not be avoided because even mere touch was clearly painful. I wanted to dissolve the suspected fascial contraction and thus give the nerves more leeway in their box again. In the course of treatment, the pain subsided and did not come back so much. The total duration of zoster disease seemed to be shortened by repeated treatments. I treated daily for about a week.

The question I ask myself: Can postzosterneuralgia be reduced or even eliminated by osteopathic treatment of fascia? So far, there is no effective therapy for this neuralgia, so an osteopathic experiment would be interesting.