Clinical features of hospitalized herpes zoster patients and comparison of elderly patients with younger patients: tertiary care clinical experience.

Aim 
Several studies were conducted to determine the characteristics of hospitalized patients with Herpes Zoster. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of hospitalized especially elderly patients with Herpes Zoster and compare them with young adult patients in tertiary clinic in Turkey. 
Material and Methods 
Hospitalized HZ patients were enrolled 2008 and 2020. Age, gender, length of hospitalization, affected dermatomes, treatment agents, comorbidities, complications were recorded from the electronic medical files. 
Results 
Totally 82 patients were evaluated. 62.2% (n=51) of the patients were over 65 years old. In the group over 65 years of age, the proportion of female patients were 54.9% (n=28), cervical dermatome involvement was 49% (n=25), the most common comorbidity is hypertension, the proportion of comorbid patients was 92.2% (n=47), the proportion of immunosuppressive patients were 39.2% (n=20), the most common complication was acute neuralgia, the proportion of complicated patients was 68.6% (n=35), the most commonly used treatment agents were valacyclovir and NSAID. The mean length of hospital stay was 11.9 days. 
Conclusion 
Elderly hospitalized patients with HZ tend to be more complicated and have longer hospital stays. Therefore, early treatment is important in this group.