ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study of a 69-year-old retired man. A 69-year-old retired man is referred by his GP to the on-call dermatology registrar with a 1-week history of increasing pain, erythema and blisters on the left side of his face. This man had herpes zoster virus (HZV) affecting the left mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve. The first symptom is usually tingling followed by severe pain in the skin supplied by the affected nerve. The patient will have acquired HZV from a primary chickenpox infection after which the virus remains latent in the spinal dorsal root ganglia. The cutaneous eruption should be treated topically with an emollient such as 50:50 white soft paraffin with liquid paraffin to keep the affected skin greasy. The emollient helps reduce pain in the eroded areas and the likelihood of fissures as the blisters crust over. The emollient also acts as a barrier to help prevent secondary bacterial infection in the denuded areas of skin.
