Abstract:Abstract OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of short-term spinal cord stimulation (st-SCS) in the treatment of herpes zoster-associated neuralgia (ZAN) and to analyze the risk factors affecting the treatment outcome. METHODS: The patients were included who were confirmed diagnosis of herpes zoster-associated neuralgia and received short-course spinal cord electrical stimulation from January 1, 2019, to September 31, 2021 in the Pain Department of Shandong Provincial Hospital. Clinical data were collected, including NRS scores, consumption of drugs, sleep quality, and laboratory results. The patients were followed for 6 months to retrospectively analyze clinical efficacy. Lasso regression was executed to screen factors and logistic regression was applied to establish a prediction model. The model was evaluated by C index, ROC curve (receiver operating characteristic curve), calibration curve, and clinical decision analysis curve (DCA curve). RESULTS: A total of 91 patients were included, and after st-SCS treatment, NRS scores were significantly reduced, patients' sleep quality improved, and the mean consumption of pregabalin and gabapentin was significantly reduced compared with that before st-SCS, with a statistically significant difference of p<0.001. Logistic regression models were developed, and the results showed that long course of ZAN (course, OR 7.0232, 95%CI 1.2551-39.299, p=0.0265), high eosinophil percentage (EOP, OR 1.6808, 95%CI 1.0513-2.6874, p=0.0301), and comorbid coronary artery disease (OR 4.089, 95%CI 1.1238-14.9440, p=0.0326) were independent risk factors for the poor effect of short-term electrical stimulation treatment. CONCLUTION: St-SCS can significantly relieve pain in patients with refractory ZAN, reduce the average dosage of analgesic drugs, and improve sleep quality with few complications and high safety. Long disease duration (course), combined coronary artery disease, and high eosinophil percentage (EOP) were independent risk factors for the treatment effect of st-SCS. the area under the ROC curve was 0.767, indicating that the accuracy of the model developed in this study was high.