[Relief of subacute herpetic pain and postherpetic neuralgia with repeated application of 10% lidocaine cream].

Analgesic efficacy of repeated application of a lidocaine cream formula was investigated in herpes zoster patients with subacute pain with no further improvement after continued treatment since their acute stage (S-HZ group, n = 23), and in patients to whom past treatments had not provided adequate pain relief (PHN group, n = 28). In both groups, visual analog scale (VAS) values decreased significantly from their corresponding values before the present treatment with few cases of side effects and complete disappearances of the pain in 21.6% of all the patients. The results indicate that the repeated application of the lidocaine cream is a safe and effective treatment method. Significantly higher effectiveness was achieved in the S-HZ group in terms of the difference in the VAS values between before and after the treatment, effectiveness in improving the activities of daily life, and overall efficacy evaluation.