Effect observation of oral administration and external application of Chinese medicine in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia

  Objective  To investigate the effect of oral administration and external application of Chinese medicine in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia.

  Methods  Totally 80 patients with postherpetic neuralgia were randomly divided into control group and observation group, with 40 cases in each group. The control group was treated with acyclovir and vitamin B₁₂, while the observation group was treated with oral administration and external application of Chinese medicine. After two courses of treatment, the curative effect, the degree of neuralgia and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups.

  Results  The total effective rate of the observation group was 97.50%, which was significantly higher than 85.00% of the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, the score of pain Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) in the observation group was (3.43±0.22) points, which was significantly lower than (5.20±1.07) points in the control group (P < 0.05). The incidence rate of adverse reactions in the observation group was 5.00%, which was significantly lower than 20.00% in the control group (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  Oral administration and external application of Chinese medicine can improve the clinical effect of postherpetic neuralgia, relieve the degree of neuralgia and improve the prognosis.