Effects of calcium antagonists in the treatment of ophthalmic postherpetic neuralgia.

Postherpetic neuralgia is one of the most common, but also one of the most difficult conditions to treat. This condition mainly involves trigeminal, intercostal and sciatic nerves and the brachial plexus area. It mostly appears in patients older than 60 years. Although pain is a transient condition, the pain of postherpeutic neuralgia may become intractable, disabling an may decrease the quality of the patient's life. We studied 30 patients affected by ophthalmic postherpetic neuralgia, appearing, some months after fronto-orbital cutaneous eruption. All patients received nicardipine retard, decreasing gradually, 40 mg/day for 2 weeks. The monitoring of pain was performed using the visual analogue score of Scott-Huskissonn. The results show an improvement in 'pain relief'.