Abstract:

AIM: To investigate the effect of pregabalin combined with Helium-neon laser therapy on pain and sleep of patients with herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia.  METHODS: Eighty-four patients, diagnosed as postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) were randomly divided into two groups, with 42 cases in each. Patients in the control group received oral administration of pregabalin while the study group was administered extra Helium-neon laser therapy based on the treatment of the control group. Clinical symptoms, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) score were compared between the two groups.RESULTS:The study group presented better clinical efficacy than the control group（Z=2.660，P<0.05）. After treatment of one week, two weeks, one month, two months and three months, the VAS scores of the two groups were lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), and scores of the study group were significantly lower than those of the control group (t=3.17, 7.27, 12.02, 19.26, 11.79, P<0.05); the PSQI scores of the two groups were lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), and scores of the study group was significantly lower than those of the control group (t=2.71, 3.74, 8.79, 9.60, 9.91, P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Pregabalin combined with Helium-neon laser therapy can significantly improve the clinical patients’ symptoms by relieving pain and improving sleep quality of PHN patients.

Key words: Helium-neon laser therapy, pregabalin, postherpetic neuralgia, VAS, PSQ