Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

This study was performed to determine age, sex, site and side of involvement in patients with herpes zoster.

For this purpose, all patients of dermatology clinic of Firuzabadi Hospital in Thehran who presented with painful grouped vesiculobullous lesions with a dermatomal distribution on an erythematous base for the first time, in whom no predisposing factor could be detected, and had a clinical course compatible with herpes zoster (at least of two weeks duration) were considered as herpes zoster cases after three follow up visits with weekly intervals from the first visit and were included in this study. 200 cases of herpes zoster were found (1.18% of dermatology clinic cases) from August 22, 1996 through December 21, 1998. The ages of patients ranged from 9 to 90 years and the mean age of involvement (mean ± Sf) was 41.89 ± 1.37 years. 65% of the patients were 50 years old or younger and 35% were younger than 30 years. This shows that in this study the age of involvement is significantly lower than other series. There was no significant difference between mean ages of males and females. The most common involved dermatomes were thoracic (33%), lumbosacral (30.5%), cervical (20%) and trigeminal (16%).

There was a single case (0.5%) of disseminated herpes zoster. In this study, the most common involved dermatomes were thoracic, but the frequencies of involvement of these dermatomes were lower than what reported in other series (53-55%). The frequency of involvement of lumbosacral dermatome was higher than other series (11 %). The mean age of trigeminal involvement was significantly higher than the mean age of the patients with thoracic involvement (difference of two means = 12.98 years and P = 0.011). There were no significant differences between the sites and the sides (right or left) of involvement in males and females as well as between different age groups. There were no significant differences between the right or left side lesions, comparing different dermatomal involvements.