Close correlation of herpes zoster‐induced voiding dysfunction with severity of zoster‐related pain: A single faculty retrospective study

Herpes zoster (HZ), a common vesiculo‐erythematous skin disease associated with reactivation of varicella zoster virus in the cranial nerve, dorsal root, and autonomic ganglia, is accompanied by several related symptoms represented by postherpetic neuralgia. Among them, involvement of vesicorectal dysfunction is relatively rare. The vesicorectal symptom can usually be recovered in transient course, but is quite important in terms of impaired quality of life. Male individuals affected with HZ and skin lesions on sacral dermatome have been reported as independent risk factors of zoster‐related voiding dysfunction. In this study, urinary symptoms were focused upon and six patients with zoster‐related voiding dysfunction at a single faculty of dermatology in Japan from 2009 to 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients showed HZ lesions on the sacral area and the urinary symptom recovered in approximately 2 months (14 days to 7 months). The term of treatment for zoster‐associated urinary dysfunction was positively correlated with that for zoster‐related pain without significance (r = 0.661, P = 0.153). Average treatment term for pain relief of sacral HZ accompanied by voiding dysfunction (91.3 ± 76.44 days) was significantly longer than that of sacral HZ without urinary symptom (18.9 ± 20.42 days) (P = 0.032). These results suggested that zoster‐related voiding dysfunction would mainly be involved in sacral HZ and closely associated with severity of zoster‐related pain. Dermatologists should be aware that severe zoster‐related pain accompanied by sacral HZ, which is related to prolonged treatment of pain relief, can be a predictive factor of voiding dysfunction.