ABSTRACT

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with herpes zoster and to explore the similarities and differences with other epidemiological studies from Turkey and the world.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 115 patients diagnosed with herpes zoster in the Yuzuncu Yıl University Medical Faculty Dermatology Department between January 2007 and December 2010.

Results:

The mean age of the patients was 42.21±23.88 years. 115 patients, -47 female (40.9%), 68 male (59.1%)- aged between 2 and 93 years were assessed. Pediatric age group, 20 (17.4%), adult age group, 95 (82.6%) patients, respectively. The incidence of HZ was found to be 0.43%. HZ was observed winter rarely (13.04%). Is mostly seen in the months of March (17.39%) The affected dermatome were thorasic (49 patient, 42.6%), servical (21 patient, 18.3%), ophtalmic (22 patient, 19.1%), lomber (16 patient, 13.9%), sacral (7 patient, 6.1%) respectively. Complications developed in 13% of patients.

Conclusion

We observed that our findings were more or less similar to the findings of the literature data. Cases of HZ in our study was very rare during the winter season. Multi-center studies are needed to the emergence of clinical and epidemiological characteristics of HZ in Turkey.