Herpes zoster meningoencephalitis complicated with peripheral vascular disease: an uncommon presentation of a common disease.

Abstract

Herpes zoster is reactivation of the varicella zoster virus that has remained dormant in the dorsal root ganglia since an earlier episode of chickenpox. Herpes zoster has variable clinical presentations, but meningo-encephalitis is not frequently encountered. There is growing evidence of both large and small vessel involvement in immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients, in contrast with the previous opinion that immunocompetent patients have vasculopathy in the large vessels while immunosuppressed patients have vasculopathy in the small vessels. We present the case of a patient in whom herpes zoster meningoencephalitis was complicated with multifocal vasculopathy with peripheral vascular disease; this is an unusual co-occurrence.