Abstract

Background: Herpes zoster (HZ) is classically unilateral in its presentation appearing along the distribution of the cranial or spinal sensory nerves, with an occasional spill into the neighbouring dermatomes. An observation that many patients of facial herpes zoster have predominantly left sided involvement led us to validate further if any significant association of herpes zoster really occurs with cerebral dominance and handedness of the individuals.
Aims & Objectives: To see any correlation between handedness of individual and laterality of facial herpes zoster and to compare it with extra-facial herpes zoster.
Material & Methods: All the patients with clinically diagnosed herpes zoster presenting to the dermatology outdoor or admitted in indoor of a tertiary care centre were included in this study during a period of year from January 2017 to December 2018. Clearance from institutional ethical committee was taken.
Results: Out of a total of 191 patients, males 105 (55%) outnumbered females 86 (45%) with a male: female ratio of 1.22. Maximum number of patients were between 20 and 40 years (67;35.08%). The right‑handed individuals accounted for 89.53% of the total cases. A higher number of right‑handed patients manifested HZ on the left side (55.56%). Of the left‑handed, 50% manifested HZ on the right side. Statistical analysis with Fisher’s test revealed a two‑tailed P = 0.637 showing a statistically insignificant involvement of the contralateral side in HZ compared to hand dominance. These values for facial and extra-facial HZ were 0.9 & 0.09 respectively. This is in contrast to older studies which found significant correlation between hand dominance and contralateral side of involvement in herpes zoster.
Conclusion: Cerebral dominance plays an important role in neuro-immunomodulation, as reflected in previous studies, but our study did not find any significant association between hand dominance and contralateral eruption of HZ.