Abstract: Objective To explore the effect of pulsed radiofrequency thoracic dorsal root ganglion combined with drugs in the treatment of elderly patients with severe postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and to analyze the changes of cytokines. Methods A total of 88 elderly patients with PHN admitted to our hospital were enrolled and randomly divided into the control group and the combined group, with 44 cases in each group. The control group was treated with oral pregabalin and conventional drugs, and the combination group was treated with pulsed radiofrequency thoracic dorsal root ganglion at the same time on the basis of the control group. Results The score of visual analogue scale(VAS) in the combined group was lower than that in the control group 1, 4, 8, 12 weeks after treatment (P<0.05); The score of life satisfaction index B(LSI-B) in the combined group was higher than that in the control group 4, 12 weeks after treatment (P<0.05). After treatment, the serum level of IL-10 in the two groups was significantly lower than that before treatment (P<0.05), especially in the combined group (P<0.05). After treatment, the serum levels of substance P(SP) and neurokinin 1(NK-1) were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), especially in the combined group (P<0.05). The adverse reaction rate showed no significant difference between the combined group and the control group (P>0.05). Conclusions The effect of pulsed radiofrequency thoracic dorsal root ganglion combined with drugs in the treatment of PHN in the elderly patients is better than that of drug treatment alone, which may be related to the regulation of the patients’ immune imbalance.

Key words: pulsed radiofrequency, thoracic dorsal root ganglion, postherpetic neuralgia, pregabalin, aged