Article in Japanese

Laryngeal herpes zoster in a child

Hiromi KOIKE¹⁾, Yoshihiro KUROSAWA¹⁾, Shigenao MIMURA¹⁾, Makiko ISHIKAWA¹⁾, Hodaka TAKEUCHI¹⁾, Mutsuko HARA²⁾, Chikako NAKAJIMA¹⁾

This study reports a case of laryngeal herpes zoster in a ten-year old girl. Herpes zoster in children is relatively rare, and laryngeal herpes zoster localized to the larynx is even more uncommon. Laryngeal herpes zoster is a disease in which the varicella zoster virus (VZV) infects latently, when primary infection is reactivated and the host's immunocompetence declines, causing unilateral herpes zoster in the tongue base and epiglottis. At the time of reporting, this case was added to 34 domestic cases with clinical features diagnosed as laryngeal herpes zoster. Twenty-seven patients (79%) presented severe sore throat, but 28 (82%) did not show fever. Laryngeoscopic findings showed unilateral laryngeal mucosal abnormality along the innervation. Although viral antibody titers are necessary for a definite diagnosis, findings from the oral cavity and pharyngeal larynx are important for early diagnosis. When intense sore throat, pain and eruptions are found on the unilateral laryngeal mucosa, this disease should be anticipated and antiviral drugs need to be administered as early as possible.

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1) Devision of Pediatrics, Ageo Central General Hospital
2) Devision of Otolaryngology, Ageo Central General Hospital

Key words	herpes zoster, larynx, reactivate, child
Received	January 10, 2019
Accepted	April 11, 2019

31 (3)：269─273,2019