Abstract
Ischemic stroke is a recognized complication of herpes zoster ophthalmicus. Arterial involvement is usually seen on the side of the rash. It is thought to be due to vessel inflammation by the virus, which travels from the trigeminal ganglion. Few case reports of bilateral and distant site of zoster lesions with stroke in the brain have been described. These reports suggest possibility of contiguous vascular, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or hematogenous spread of the virus from the ganglion to the cerebral blood vessels. Therapeutically acyclovir, anticoagulation, and steroids have been used in the treatment of the zoster associated with stroke. We describe a case of immunocompromised patient with ipsilateral zoster ophthalmicus with bilateral anterior circulation strokes, who was treated with above measures and made successful recovery. This report also raises/supports possible CSF/vascular/hematogenous spread of the virus from the ganglion to involve cerebral blood vessels leading to the stroke.
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Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open
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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which
permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial
purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of
adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original
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