HSV1 New Location

[Beththerest]

I have had oral HSV1 since 2010 and can expect a fairly manageable outbreak about once a year. I always take acyclovir and leave it dry and it’s gone in 4 days.

So 5 days ago I had chin surgery where they shaved the corners of my chin bone. I had compression tape on my chin and an ace bandage around my head which they told me to remove after 24 hours. When I removed it I noticed a blister on the tip of my chin coming on surrounded by the compression tape. The doctors thought it was a bacterial infection and prescribed more antibiotics. On day 3 I had a cold sore come in the usual place on my lip. So I started acyclovir. It’s now gone. But the sore on my chin has been weeping yellow and is about 2 inches in diameter, far from the lip border. We now thinks it’s a giant cold sore. It looks absolutely horrendous and almost covers my whole chin.

So, going forward for the rest of my life… has this surgery/outbreak now “activated” this brand new location for a huge cold sore to pop up whenever it wants?

[Terri Warren]

First of all, I am assuming, since you didn’t mention it, that no one swab tested the chin lesion? If it is a cold sore, then it is not truly a new location. The group of nerves that supplies the lip also supplies the chin, so IF this was a cold sore, the virus simply traveled on a slightly different branch of that nerve. But without a swab test, we cannot know if this was truly HSV 1, right?

It is common for surgery to trigger an outbreak of herpes, regardless of location, if the surgery is in one of the areas innervated in which the virus lives.

Terri

[Beththerest]

Nobody swabbed it, no. It didn’t occur to the surgeon or an online dermatologist—I mentioned to the surgeon a week later that it might be HSV1. The surgeon was pretty stumped by it from the start. I was on cephalexin immediately following the surgery and then doxycycline prescribed by an online dr who thought it was fungal or staph/strep bacterial after seeing the picture.

It appeared on the opposite side of the face from where I usually get a cold sore. I always get a cold sore in the “classic” spot on the border of my lower right lip. Whatever this was appeared on the lower corner of the left side of my chin.

Curious—Does HSV1 reside in the nerve branch of one side of the face (like shingles)? And therefore it wouldn’t make sense as HSV1 since it appeared on the opposite side from the usual spot?

[Terri Warren]

No, herpes it not like shingles in that way. Lesions very often appear on either side of the face, not just one.

Terri

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