Monday, March 25, 2024

Can Nerve Damage From Shingles Be Repaired

What Is An Intercostal Nerve Block

Shingles: Pathophysiology, Symptoms, 3 stages of Infection, Complications, Management, Animation.

The intercostal nerves run along each rib from the spine in the back to the sternum in the chest. These nerves can become irritated, inflamed, or damaged, which can result in a band-like pain along the chest wall. An intercostal nerve block can relieve this pain and increase circulation in the area. During this procedure, a local anesthetic is injected near the nerves that supply the area in pain. The steroid helps to decrease inflammation in the specific location where it is most needed. The steroid may help the injury heal by reducing inflammation. It may provide permanent relief or a period of a few weeks/months of relief while the injury is healing.

Diabetes And Nerve Damage

Nerve damage can affect your hands, feet, legs, and arms.

High blood sugar can lead to nerve damage called diabetic neuropathy. You can prevent it or slow its progress by keeping your blood sugar as close to your target range as possible and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Managing your blood sugar is an essential part of your diabetes care plan. Not only does it help you with day-to-day wellness, it can help prevent serious health problems down the road.

Nerve damage is one possible complication from having high blood sugar levels for a long time. High blood sugar damages your nerves, and these nerves may stop sending messages to different parts of your body. Nerve damage can cause health problems ranging from mild numbness to pain that makes it hard to do normal activities.

Half of all people with diabetes have nerve damage. The good news is that you can help prevent or delay it by keeping your blood sugar as close to your target levels as possible. When you do this, youll also have more energy, and youll feel better!

Symptoms of nerve damage usually develop slowly, so its important to notice your symptoms early so you can take action to prevent it from getting more serious.

Surgical Treatment To Relieve Shingles Pain From Postherpetic Neuralgia

Many patients who suffer from Shingles develop a condition called Postherpetic Neuralgia.Dr. Demetrio Aguila offers a simple, out-patient surgical procedure that can eliminate the pain of Postherpetic Neuralgia.In this short video he explains how he can help patients with this condition get their lives back.

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  • Hi, my name is Ramon Toriz Im from Mexico and almost 4 years ago I had zoster in the left side of my head and my face I would like to know more about your surgery, could be possible to receive more information please to my email.Time of surgery?, costs?, if after the surgery the pain is tottaly releif?

    Thank you

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    Inhibition Of Inflammatory Response

    Inhibition of the inflammatory response promotes nerve regeneration by preventing SCs from apoptosis , and magnesium supplements have also been reported to prevent motor neuron death in neonatal sciatic nerve injury . Magnesium ion can promote peripheral nerve repair by inhibiting inflammation.

    Pan et al. found that a high magnesium diet significantly increased magnesium concentrations in plasma and nerve tissue, which improved neurobehavioural and electrophysiological functions and reduced the deposition of inflammatory cells and inflammatory cytokines expression. High magnesium supplementation inhibits the expression of MCP-1 and RANES, thereby inhibiting macrophage deposition and myelin clearance . Meanwhile, macrophages are a principal source of many inflammatory factors. However, it should be noted that the low magnesium environment might exert an opposite effect of enhancing inflammation in the damaged nerves compared with high concentration. Meanwhile, Pan et al. also found that high magnesium supplementation could reduce the apoptosis of SCs by promoting the expression of bcl-2 and bcl-XL and then down-regulating active caspase-3 and cytochrome expression.

    How Do I Know The Nerve Is Recovering

    Ultrasound

    As your nerve recovers, the area the nerve supplies may feel quite unpleasant and tingly. This may be accompanied by an electric shock sensation at the level of the growing nerve fibres the location of this sensation should move as the nerve heals and grows. Over time, these feelings subside and the area should begin to feel more normal.

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    Finally Use A Cool Water Compresses

    Cool water may soothe the burning sensation from both your rash and mild PHN pain. Depending on the location, you could potentially put a cool pack on it, Dr. Kotton says, though she notes this wont help much for severe pain. Soak a cloth in ice water, take it out, and apply directly to the affected area. Ahhhhh. Another soother to consider? This pain very likely wont last forever, even if you have PHN. In the meantime, though, these tips will help you get through the worst of it.

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    Who Gets Postherpetic Neuralgia

    About 1 out of 5 people who have shingles will have these sharp, ongoing pains afterward. Certain things can increase your chances of getting it:

    • Age: Most people who get postherpetic neuralgia are older than 60.
    • Gender: Women seem to get it more than men.
    • Early symptoms: People who have numbness, tingling, or itching before a shingles rash even appears tend to get the lingering pain later.
    • Pain at the start: If you had severe pain or a rash during the beginning of your outbreak, you have a greater chance of the neuralgia later.
    • Other health problems: People with ongoing conditions that can weaken the immune system, like HIV and cancer, seem more likely to get it.

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    Where Can You Find Stem Cell Treatment For Nerve Damage

    Scientists continue investigating next-generation therapies for nerve regeneration. Investigators are involved in clinical treatments for spinal cord repair, nerve cell regrowth for trauma, neuroregeneration for stroke patients, and repair of peripheral nerve damage caused by diabetes. To discover what stem cell treatment options are available for you, contact the professional team at National Stem Cell Clinic for more information we have locations in both Houston, TX and Miami, FL. Discover answers to all of your questions about regenerative therapy.

    Overview Of Facial Nerve Disorders

    9 months after shingles affecting the C5 nerve root

    Facial paralysis can be caused by several different factors or conditions:

    Although the symptoms cannot be relieved through surgery, Herpes Zoster Oticus can also affect the facial nerve. This can cause not only muscle weakness but also balance problems and hearing loss.

    There are three basic approaches to facial nerve repair: direct nerve repair, cable nerve grafting or nerve substitution. Direct nerve repair is the preferred option whenever possible and is performed by removing the diseased or affected portion of the nerve, then reconnecting the two nerve ends. Nerve grafting is a similar procedure, except that a donor nerve is used to connect the remaining nerve ends if they no longer reach each other. Finally, during nerve substitution, sometimes called cross-face grafting, your surgeon connects the affected nerves with the healthy ones on the opposite side of the face, restoring greater facial symmetry.

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    What Is The Best Treatment For Peripheral Neuropathy

    There are several different treatment options for peripheral neuropathy. However, the most common and effective treatment is the use of anti-seizure medications such as gabapentin and pregabalin. Another effective treatment is the use of certain tricyclic antidepressants, such as amitriptyline, doxepin, duloxetine, and nortriptyline. These medications help relieve neuropathic pain by interfering with the chemical processes in your brain and spinal cord that are causing the pain.

    Help Is Available For Phn

    Fortunately,early treatment for shingles can lower your chances of getting PHN.

    For some people, the pain becomes refractory, or resistant to treatment, explains Dr. Rosenquist. So we want to treat shingles as fast as we can ideally as soon as somebody feels a tingling or burning sensation, even before a rash develops.

    Sheadds that whenever nerve pain is involved, some people respond to treatment andsome dont.

    However,medications taken orally or injected that can target the affected nerves may beable to stun the nervous system into behaving properly. That meanstransmitting the appropriate signal to the brain.

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    Why Does Postherpetic Neuralgia Happen

    Postherpetic neuralgia starts out with a very familiar illness: chickenpox. The virus that causes it is called varicella-zoster. Once chickenpox has run its course, the virus âhides outâ in your nervous system.

    Doctors arenât sure exactly why, but sometimes the virus reactivates decades later and travels along pathways to your skin. A painful, blistering rash can erupt. Thatâs shingles.

    In some cases, shingles can damage your nerves so that they canât send messages from your skin to your brain as they usually do. That scramble of signals can trigger the ongoing pain of neuralgia.

    If the pain lasts more than a year, it can become permanent.

    Lasting Pain After Shingles

    Nerve damage pain

    Pain that continues for a long time after a shingles rash has disappeared is called post-herpetic neuralgia. This is the most common complication of shingles. Its still not clear how it can be prevented or what the best treatment is.

    Shingles typically causes a rash accompanied by pain in the affected area. The pain normally goes away when the rash goes away. This usually happens after two to four weeks. Pain that continues for longer is referred to as post-herpetic neuralgia. The word “post-herpetic” means “post-herpes” because the pain arises after infection by the herpes zoster virus. In very rare cases pain can come back after a shingles infection, even if it had already gone away and the rash has disappeared.

    The main symptom of post-herpetic neuralgia is pain in the nerves . The skin is often overly sensitive and itchy as well. This can make it difficult or painful to wash yourself, turn over in bed, or hug someone. The pain and itching can be very severe and might keep you from sleeping.

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    What Does Postherpetic Neuralgia Feel Like

    You usually have pain on one side of your body, where you had the blisters. The feeling is described as shooting, sharp, or stabbing. Other signs you have neuralgia include:

    • It hurts to be touched: Sometimes, you canât bear clothing rubbing on your skin. You might feel discomfort from a light breeze.
    • Long-lasting pain: This condition can last 3 months or longer after the shingles rash has healed. In some people, itâs permanent. For most, it gets better over time.
    • Other sensations: Sometimes, you might feel burning, itching, tingling, or aching along with the shooting feelings. Some people feel numb or get headaches.
    • You may also get a fever and generally feel worn-out.

    What Medications Help For Shingles Pain

    Pain from shingles can be very distressing. If you need help managing your pain, talk to your provider about the options below. The right one for you will depend on many factors, like how bad your pain is, other medications youre taking, and any other health issues you have.

    None of these options are a replacement for the antivirals above, and they are generally for short-term use, since longer use can increase your risk for side effects.

    • NSAIDs. For shingles pain, start with NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. You can find these over the counter on pharmacy store shelves, and they include popular medications like , , and . These are meant for short-term relief of mild to moderate pain.

    • Glucocorticoids. For more severe pain, glucocorticoids like may help. They may also speed up healing from shingles.

    • Opioid pain medications. Lastly, you can ask your provider about an opioid pain medication like oxycodone or hydrocodone/acetaminophen. These are also for short-term treatment. Opioids come with a risk for causing dependency and addiction, among other side effects.

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    What Are The Risk Factors For Postherpetic Neuralgia

    Age is a major risk factor for getting both shingles and postherpetic neuralgia. Risk begins to increase at age 50 and rises exponentially the older you get.

    People who have acute pain and severe rash during shingles also have a higher risk for developing postherpetic neuralgia.

    People with lowered immunity due to conditions like HIV or Hodgkins lymphoma have an increased risk for developing shingles. The risk of shingles is 20 to 100 greater in this group.

    Specific Disorders And Peripheral Nerve Damage

    Mayo Clinic Minute: Don’t suffer with shingles

    Peripheral nerve damage is involved in several specific disorders:

    Pinched nerves or trapped nerves

    That develop after an injury or accident can cause peripheral neuropathy, which can lead to severe neuropathic pain.

    Restless leg syndrome

    Where nerve damage in the lower limbs causes an irresistible urge to move the legs, particularly when in bed at night.

    Sciatica

    Usually felt as severe shooting pains down one side of the body, is due to peripheral nerve damage at the point where the nerve exits the spine.

    Diabetic neuropathy

    In which chronically high levels of blood sugar in diabetics leads to widespread peripheral nerve damage. This usually causes pain and a loss of sensation in the limbs and is also accompanied by blood vessel damage, which can lead to foot ulcers and leg ulcers that are slow to heal.

    Damage to specific motor peripheral nerves

    This can cause paralysis and neuropathy in sensory nerves can lead to numbness, stopping you feeling sensations like touch or pain.

    Autonomic peripheral nerve damage

    This can interfere with hormone production this can cause poor function of the pituitary gland, leading to acromegaly, or to the hypothalamus, causing Cushings syndrome or to the thyroid gland, causing hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism.

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    Can Clinical Massage Help With Nerve Injury

    If youve ever felt a shooting, tingling sensation down your leg or quick, sharp pain after lifting something or playing sports, you likely have experienced a nerve injury. Often, the pain is just a temporary nuisance, but it can also be debilitating. Clinical massage therapy can often relieve pain caused by nerve injury.

    Lets take a look at nerves, the pain they can cause and how massage benefits nerve issues.

    Magnesium And Peripheral Nerve Injury

    At present, many strategies have been adopted for peripheral nerve injury repair, and autografts are considered to be the gold standard clinically. At the same time, there are some insurmountable limitations of autologous nerve graft, such as the risk of donor site lesion, the limited supply and limited therapeutic effect, the risk of pathological changes in the donor site, the limited source of donor nerve and the limited therapeutic effect . To replace autografts, nerve conduits made of biomaterials have become a new choice. An ideal nerve conduit should provide mechanical guidance and a suitable microenvironment for nerve axon regeneration and also protect the regenerated nerve. The materials used for nerve conduits mainly include extracellular matrix, natural polysaccharides/proteins, and synthetic polymers . Studies have shown that they have the same effect as autografts on peripheral nerve repair . However, due to the lack of mechanical, their ability to repair long gap injuries beyond 20 mm is limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need for advanced materials to reach an ideal nerve repair. Based on the protective effect of magnesium on the nervous system, magnesium begins to be used in the treatment of peripheral nerve injury in recent years, and related research has developed rapidly. In this review, we are aiming at providing an overview of magnesium in promoting peripheral nerve regeneration.

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    What Are The Symptoms Of Peripheral Nerve Damage

    As you might expect, the symptoms of peripheral nerve damage vary greatly. However, they can be generally divided into:

    • Feeling numb in a specific area of the body
    • Pain that can range from mild through to severe and debilitating
    • Getting a burning or tingling sensation, like pins and needles, but worse
    • Feeling as though your muscles have become very weak
    • Being over-sensitive to touch to the extent that even a light touch can cause pain

    What Is Shingles How Do You Get It

    OCCIPITAL NERVE STIMULATOR

    Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is an infection of the nerve roots caused by the varicella-zoster virus .

    You may have already heard of varicella-zoster since it is the virus that causes chickenpox. Its important to note that this is not a coincidence: shingles is not caught like many viral infections. Instead, VZV lies dormant in the body after someone gets chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine.

    At some point, the dormant virus can reactivate and lead to shingles.

    Scientists arent currently sure why or how VZV suddenly causes problems. What we do know is that people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk.

    Because of this, seniors are more likely to experience shingles. Other groups with a higher risk include those with medical conditions which negatively impact their immune systems and those who receive immunosuppressive drugs.

    People cannot spread shingles itself, though they can spread varicella-zoster through direct contact with fluid from the shingles rash blisters.

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    Treatment Options For Nerve Damage From Shingles

    The thing with shingles to be aware of is it’s important that symptoms are treated early. This can prevent the onset of chronic pain from the related postherpetic neuralgia. If you become depressed, depending on your medical history your doctor may prescribe antidepressants or therapy of some sort.

    Other treatment options can include topical and local anesthetics or numbing agents, but the pain and inflammation can be extreme and there is no cure or long term clinical treatment options available. When shingles is on the face, along certain facial nerves, it can damage related delicate muscle underneath, as well, if left untreated – so get a medical diagnosis promptly.

    Is Stem Cell Therapy Effective For Nerve Regeneration

    Stem cell treatment for nerve damage shows great promise, and it offers significant benefits compared to other, more traditional treatments such as surgery. Studies show that it can reduce the total damage to peripheral nerves and improving tissue regeneration. In some cases, but not all, this treatment may restore complete functional recovery.

    However, the question many patients really want an answer to is whether stem cell therapy will work for them personally. That question is difficult to answer for four main reasons:

    • There are many different kinds of chronic damage
    • New damage may be easier to repair than existing damage
    • Every patients health situation is unique
    • The field of nerve regeneration is relatively new

    In other words, while there are solid scientific reasons to be excited about the potential of stem cells for treating nerve damage, its still too early to promise its effectiveness in every case. Some patients may experience amazing results, but everyones body and situation are different. Also, nerve damage and treatments of systemic diseases like Alzheimers are completely different than those for peripheral nerve damage caused by diabetes.

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