Increased Incidence of Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia in Adult Patients following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Taiwan

The aims of this study were to estimate the incidences of herpes zoster (HZ) and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) in patients after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Furthermore, we aimed to explore the risk factors of the development of HZ and PHN in patients after TBI. This population-based, longitudinal analysis was conducted using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (consisting of 1,000,000 beneficiaries) from 1996 to 2010. Using the longitudinal National Health Insurance Research Database, we conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study to evaluate the incidence of HZ and PHN in adult TBI patients and controls. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression were used to compare differences in the development of HZ and PHN. The effects of gender, comorbidity and surgery on the risk of HZ and PHN development were assessed by subgroup analyses. Over a 15-year follow-up, the cumulative incidence of HZ in 28,234 TBI patients (604.00/100,000 person-years) was significantly higher than 34,085 controls (322.21/100,000 person-years) (P