Four Cases of Pediatric Ramsay Hunt Syndrome

Abstract

Four cases of the Ramsay Hunt syndrome were admitted to our hospital during the two years from February 1997 to January 1999. Though one of the 4 patients had been immunized with varicella vaccine, the causative virus was not a vaccine strain but a wild-type strain. These patients were not suffering from underlying diseases. Because the number of pediatric zoster patient without underlying diseases who visited our clinic between 1981 and 1999 was 35 cases, the Ramsay Hunt syndrome turned out not to be extremely rare even among children having no underlying diseases. The prognosis of the Ramsay Hunt syndrome is assumed to be good if the treatment begins at the early stage. To begin the treatment at the early stage, it is necessary to confirm the diagnosis with virological examinations.