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Although clear risk factors exist for herpes zoster (HZ; age and immunosuppression foremost among them) many completely healthy people develop HZ for no apparent reason. Patients often wonder if recent trauma to the involved area could be responsible.
Researchers constructed a case-control study from Medicare claims data, matching each of 16,000 patients (age, ≥65) with diagnoses of HZ and no mention of immunosuppressive conditions with 10 age-matched controls who did not have HZ. HZ patients were significantly more likely than controls to have been evaluated for some kind of trauma in the year preceding HZ diagnosis (or the index date for controls). This risk peaked in the week preceding HZ diagnosis, especially when head or trunk was invol…