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Article
October 1951

HERPES ZOSTER APPEARING AFTER TRAUMA

Author Affiliations

PHILADELPHIA

From the Department of Dermatology and Syphilology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Herman Beerman, M.D., Chairman.

AMA Arch Derm Syphilol. 1951;64(4):407-410. doi:10.1001/archderm.1951.01570100024002
Abstract

HERPES zoster appearing after peripheral nerve injury has been frequently reported in the European literature, although there are but few reports in the English literature. Such occurrence is of importance in view of laws governing workmen's compensation. Of added interest is consideration of many untoward effects of trauma and possibly, also, of factors concerned in the awakening of viruses from a condition of dormancy.

In 19471I reported eight cases of herpes zoster appearing after peripheral nerve injury, secondary to trauma of the skin or cornea. These cases conformed with the report of others in relation to the following circumstances. Herpes zoster with few exceptions affected the nerve supplying the region injured. Injury to the surface of the skin or cornea was inflicted in various ways and was of variable degree, as exemplified by the following sources: stroke of a whip, splinter of wood, splash of an irritant solution,

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