MRI findings of postherpetic abdominal wall pseudohernia: A case report

Herpes zoster is caused by the reactivation of latent varicella-zoster virus from dorsal root ganglia. Although infrequent, simultaneous damage to the anterior horn cells or anterior nerve roots at the same level may result in motor neuropathy. When motor involvement is localized in the abdominal wall, a pseudohernia may be the clinical presentation. We report a case of abdominal wall post-herpetic pseudohernia, with clinical, ultrasound and MRI correlation. MRI demonstrated increased T2/STIR signal intensity in the abdominal wall muscles, suggesting acute denervation. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of postherpetic pseudohernia with acute denervation demonstrated on MRI.