Herpes Zoster

Herpes zoster occurs mainly in the lumbar and hypochondriac regions with small red vesicles like beads forming a girdle around the waist . It is mostly caused by endogenous damp heat , hyperactivity of fire in the liver and gallbladder or affection of exogenous toxin . At the onset there is stabbing pain of the affected skin , which soon becomes erythematous . Patches of blisters in the size of mump - beans or soybeans are evolved , forming a bandlike distribution with clear cut interspaces between the patches . The blisters are thick - walled and their contents are transparent at first , but turn turbid in five to six days . Resolution of the cutaneous lesions after decrustation without scar formation occurs in about ten days . In some cases pain lasts longer .

Treatment

Firstly , the head and the tail of the location of herpes zoster should be distinguished . The area where the skin lesions first appeared is considered as the tail , while the extending part of herpes as the head of its locality . Prick the skin around herpes zoster with a three - edged needle to cause a little bleeding : five pricks at 0 . 5 cun from the head of the herpes zoster area and then five pricks at 0 . 5 cun from the tail , and also several pricks along both sides . Then select Quchi ( Li11 ) , Xuehai ( Sp 10 ) , Weizhong ( B 40 ) , Yanglingquan ( G 34 ) , Taichong ( Liv 3 ) .

Explanation : Pricking the skin around herpes zoster with a three - edged needle to cause bleeding is to reduce the pathogenic toxin . Quchi ( Li11 ) dispels wind and clears off heat . Xuehai ( Sp 10 ) and Weizhong ( B 40 ) eliminate heat in the blood . Yanglingquan ( G 34 ) and Taichong ( Liv 3 ) reduce damp heat from the liver and gallbladder .