BACKGROUND: There is no effective treatment for intractable postherpetic neuralgia. Some reports noticed effectiveness of intrathecal steroid administration which was injected at L2/3, L3/4 interspace. We tried the same procedure but injection site was differed to reduce the steroid dose. And then we evaluated the effectiveness and neurologic complications.

METHODS: We studied 9 patients with postherpetic neuralgia. The patients received intrathecal triamcinolone and mepivacaine (2ml of 0.5% mepivacaine with 15 mg of triamcinolone). Each weekly dose was injected into the lesion site or near the site. Pain was evaluated 1 week, 1 month and then more than 3 months after the treatment.

RESULTS: We found that pain intensity was decreased by 69.7% one week after the treatment, by 70% 3-9 months after the treatment. During the treatment, all patients except two took analgesics but did not at the end of treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this trial indicated that the intrathecal administration of triamcinolone was effective for postherpetic neuralgia pain management.