Male Subfertility

HERPES ZOSTER AFTER IRRADIATION BEDICJOHL necessary details for such correlation were not available in our cases, the provision of the necessary minutiae in the usual treatment notes being impracticable as a routine.)The relative rarity of zoster in patients treated with x rays, even when the region of the spine is directly treated, suggests that patients vary in their sensitivity either accord- ing to the degree of fibrous reaction or according to the presence of the dormant virus.Even in a large group of cases of carcinoma of the breast treated by a similar post-operative technique the percentage developing zoster is small.A factor that may be important is that of immunity conferred by a previous attack of zoster or varicella.On the other hand, zoster developing after a prolonged period after irradiation-e.g., more than 24 months later-is likely to be purely coincidental.Previous attempts to correlate zoster with cancer or reti- culosis have been based on the hypothesis that the zoster was due to infiltration by the underlying disease of the spinal ganglia or other parts of the afferent nervous reflex arc.No other authors seem to have correlated the inci- dence of zoster with the administration of x-ray treatment in a large series where such infiltration was absent.Summary A series of 45 cases of zoster developing after irradiation is described.The literature concerning the connexion between zoster on the one hand and malignant disease and reticulosis on the other is reviewed.Evidence is adduced to suggest that irradiation is implicated in the development of zoster in the majority of the cases described.