Acute postoperative herpes zoster with a sciatic nerve distribution after total joint arthroplasty of the ipsilateral hip and contralateral knee.

The differential diagnosis of a patient with acute onset of hip pain during the postoperative recovery period after total hip arthroplasty includes sciatic nerve injury, infection, incisional pain, hardware, or simply muscular issues related to overactivity. Moreover, because the rash of herpes zoster develops after 4 or 5 days of pain, it is difficult to diagnose herpes zoster during the early period. A number of reports have been issued on herpes zoster after surgery or trauma, but no report is available on herpes zoster development with a sciatic nerve distribution after ipsilateral total hip arthroplasty. The authors report the case of 75-year-old woman with herpes zoster with a sciatic nerve distribution after 2 primary total joint arthroplasties of a hip and knee. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.