Streptomycin-lidocaine injections for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia: Report of three cases with literature review

The sudden, stabbing, paroxysmal pain of neuralgia is the fiercest agony that a patient may experience in his life. Many varied medical treatments and surgical procedures have been suggested in the literature for neuralgic pain. Most of the patients fail to respond to medical treatments or succumb to complications of total anesthesia owing to surgical procedures. Herein, we tried a new treatment modality in patients suffering from postherpetic neuralgia with appreciable success in all the three cases that are presented in this paper. Streptomycin sulfate dissolved in 2% lidocaine solution was deposited at the peripheral branches on the involved nerves targeting the trigger zones, given weekly once for a maximum of 6 week period and continued once in 2 weeks if symptoms persisted. All patients were followed-up for 1 year and there was a marked improvement on follow-up.