(Herpes) Zoster Oticus

摘要

In literature, the term '(herpes) zoster oticus' is mostly attributed to the neurologist James Ramsay Hunt, who described the disease in 1907. To our knowledge, however, he was proceeded by the German otologist Otto Korner (one of the author's predecessors in Rostock), who published about 'zoster oticus' in 1904. The disease is the clinical expression of an infection with — or better reactivation of - the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in the head - especially the ear region. The incidence is roughly estimated as 1% of all zoster localizations. Patients with (herpes) zoster oticus typically present with earache, vesicular eruptions in the auricle or its surroundings (sometimes also in the buccal or oropharyngeal mucosa) and different alterations of the Ⅶ, Ⅷ (sometimes also Ⅴ, Ⅸ, and Ⅹ) cranial nerves (fig. 1).