Clinical manifestations in patients with herpes zoster oticus

Abstract

Patients with herpes zoster oticus (HZO) may exhibit diverse symptoms regarding cochleovestibular dysfunction. This study investigated the clinical manifestations of HZO by comparing symptoms associated with dysfunctions of the 7th and 8th cranial nerves (CN VII and VIII, respectively). This study is a retrospective case series. Eighty-one patients with HZO who had dysfunction of CN VII or VIII were included in this study. Electroneuronography (ENoG) values were compared among patient groups with facial weakness. Patients with ipsilateral facial weakness (62 of 81) were more common than those without. Among 81 patients, those with facial weakness, hearing loss, and vertigo were most common, and only 1 patient had vertigo without hearing loss or facial weakness. Most patients with vertigo also had hearing loss (28 of 30), and patients without hearing loss did not have vertigo (19 of 21). While patients with vertigo had worse ENoG values than those without vertigo, ENoG values were not significantly different between patients with and without hearing loss. In conclusion, various clinical manifestations of CN VII and VIII dysfunction are possible in patients with HZO. Patients with vertigo had worse ENoG values than those without, which may indicate that vertigo reflects more severe facial nerve degeneration in HZO patients with facial weakness.

Keywords: Facial weakness; Hearing loss; Herpes zoster oticus; Ramsay hunt syndrome; Vertigo.