Transient gastroparesis associated with cutaneous herpes zoster

We report a patient who developed delayed gastric emptying with vomiting and weight loss simultaneously with herpes zoster in the sixth right thoracic dermatome. Sequential radionuclide solid egg meal gastric emptying studies were used to document gastroparesis, the response to metoclopramide and its transient nature. We present a possible explanation for this phenomenon within the context of the known pathophysiology of varicella-zoster infection.