Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2020.61.40 1
Clinical characteristics of hospitalized adults and adolescents with herpes zoster in Croatia: more than 20 years of a single-center experience
Dalibor Vukelić
; Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
Dorotea Oroši Končić
; Independent scholar, Zagreb, Croatia
Jelena Prepolec
; The Hospital of the Holy Spirit, Rome, Italy
Iva Škrabić
; Community Health Centre “Zagreb – Zapad,” Zagreb, Croatia
Andrea Šupe Parun
; Croatian Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Tomislava Skuhala
; Department for Urogenital Infections, University Hospital for Infectious Diseases “Dr. Fran Mihaljević,” Zagreb, Croatia
Vladimir Trkulja
; Department of Pharmacology, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Aim To evaluate the clinical characteristics of adult and
adolescent Croatian patients hospitalized for herpes zoster
over a period of 21 years in the largest national center for
infectious diseases (catchment area approximately 25% of
the Croatian population).
Methods This retrospective chart review included all pa
-
tients older than 15 years hospitalized for herpes zoster
at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases “Dr. Fran
Mihaljević” between January 1, 1996 and December 31,
2016.
Results The study enrolled 1755 patients (uniform annual
hospitalizations), 50% of whom suffered from complicated
forms of herpes zoster, mostly generalized zoster (22.0%),
infected lesions (14.8%), and meningitis/encephalitis
(10.4%). A low percentage of patients experienced Ram
-
sey-Hunt syndrome (3.0%), keratitis (1.5%), and visceral dis
-
semination (0.2%). The majority of patients were older than
55 years (80%, median 70 years). Overall, 61.6% of patients
suffered from at least one comorbidity (most frequent: di
-
abetes 14.6%, cardiovascular incidents 24.4%, malignancy
13.0%, other infection 12.9%), and 28.2% suffered from ≥2
comorbidities. All-cause in-hospital mortality was 0.9%.
The proportion of patients with any complicated form and
of patients with meningitis/encephalitis steadily decreased
over time, while the proportion of patients with comorbid
-
ities increased. This coincided also with steadily increasing
age. No association was observed between comorbidities
and complicated forms of zoster. Pharmacological immu
-
nosuppression was associated with generalized zoster;
younger age was associated with meningitis/encephalitis;
and older age was associated with generalized zoster and
infected lesions.
Conclusion The patients most frequently hospitalized for
herpes zoster are elderly people burdened with comor-bidities, not necessarily patients with complicated forms
of the disease
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
277987
URI
Publication date:
23.10.2020.
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