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Clinical efficacy of LED golden light combined with acyclovir in the treatment of herpes zoster: a single-center prospective study

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Abstract

This study aimed to explore the safety and clinical efficacy of light emitting diode (LED) golden light combined with acyclovir in treating herpes zoster (HZ). According to the random number table, 54 inpatients with HZ were divided into control group, golden-light group, and red-light group, with 18 cases in each group. The control group received acyclovir intravenous drip, while the patients in the red-light group received acyclovir intravenous drip and red-light LED phototherapy, and the golden-light group received acyclovir intravenous drip and golden-light LED phototherapy. Primary assessments included herpes stopping time, incrustation time, decrustation time, pain visual analog scale scores (VAS), and incidence of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) on the 30th and 90th days. Golden-light group and red-light group showed a shorter herpes stopping time, incrustation time, and decrustation time (P < 0.05) compared to the control group (P < 0.05), while the golden-light group showed a shorter incrustation time and decrustation time than the red light group (all P < 0.05). After treatment VAS scores, the golden-light group showed a significant improvement compared to the control group. The golden-light group showed a better PHN incidence than the control group at 30 days follow-up. Compared with the comprehensive curative effect, the total effective rates of the golden-light group, red-light group, and control group were 88.89%, 77.78%, and 72.22%, respectively, and the efficacy of the golden-light group was better than that of the control group and red-light group. Golden light combined with acyclovir can shorten the course of HZ, relieve pain, and reduce the occurrence of PHN, and the effect is better than that of the red-light group and the control group.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all study participants for their contributions to the study.

Funding

Science and Technology Research Project of Education Department of Jiangxi Province (No. GJJ200230), Jiangxi Provincial Science and Technology Plan Project (No. 20152ACG70015), The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University Young Talent Research Incubation Program (No. YFYPY202147), and Health Commission Jiangxi Provincial of China (No. 202130178).

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Author notes

  1. Shiyang Li and Zixuan Xiao contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

    Shiyang Li, Zixuan Xiao, Xianwei Cao, Zhuxiu Guo, Jianbo Tong, Wenmin Fei, Yangyang Gong & Zhibin Zhang

  2. Nanchang University National Institute of LED On Silicon Substrute, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

    Duyang Wang, Kainan Yang & Guangxu Wang

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  1. Shiyang Li
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  2. Zixuan Xiao
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  5. Xianwei Cao
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  10. Yangyang Gong
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  11. Zhibin Zhang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xianwei Cao, Guangxu Wang or Zhibin Zhang.

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Ethics approval

This study adheres to the ethical guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration, and the experiments conducted in this study were authorized by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University. All participants in this study—patients or guardians—signed consent forms containing complete clinical information.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Li, S., Xiao, Z., Wang, D. et al. Clinical efficacy of LED golden light combined with acyclovir in the treatment of herpes zoster: a single-center prospective study. Lasers Med Sci 38, 157 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-023-03817-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-023-03817-y

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