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pISSN 2005-9159
eISSN 2093-0569

Case Report

Korean J Pain 2011; 24(1): 53-56

Published online March 31, 2011 https://doi.org/10.3344/kjp.2011.24.1.53

Copyright © The Korean Pain Society.

Relief of Postherpetic Neuralgia with Transforaminal Epidural Injection of Magnesium -A Case Report-

Ho Kyoung Yu, MD, Joon Ho Lee, MD*, Sung Hwan Cho, MD, and Yong Ik Kim, MD

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Bucheon Hospital, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Bucheon, Korea.

Correspondence to: Joon Ho Lee, MD. Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Bucheon Hospital, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, 1174, Jung-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon 420-767, Korea. Tel: +82-32-621-5340, Fax: +82-32-621-5322, anpjuno@gmail.com

Received: December 14, 2010; Revised: January 8, 2011; Accepted: January 21, 2011

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Although postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a common chronic pain syndrome, the pathophysiology of this disorder is not well known and management is often very difficult. N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists are known to be effective in PHN, and magnesium, a physiological blocker of NMDA receptors, is widely used to treat various chronic pain disorders. Here, we present a case of the PHN refractory to conventional treatment, which was treated successfully with transforaminal epidural injection of magnesium sulphate at the affected dermatome.

Keywords: epidural injections, magnesium sulphate, N-Methyl--Aspartate receptor, postherpetic neuralgia