PHN Risk Factors

Early neuromodulation analgesic intervention during the acute herpes zoster phase may reduce PHN incidence. Short-term spinal cord stimulation applied to acute HZ patients has shown significant pain reduction in preliminary studies and may confer durable neuroprotective effects, potentially preventing PHN progression in high-risk patients. Gene polymorphism data associated with PHN risk cannot currently be pooled due to an insufficient number of studies on specific genes. A prior meta-analysis demonstrated a 1.22-fold to 3.11-fold increase in PHN risk for each decade of ageing, making advanced age the most significant determinant.