This is because each spinal nerve root—one on each side of the body—services a specific area of skin called a dermatome. When a shingles outbreak occurs, only that dermatome on that side of ...

Caused by the same virus behind chickenpox, shingles is a painful nerve root infection resulting in a skin rash. What does the shingles rash looks like? Who’s at risk? And who needs the shingles ...

However, dermatome maps are ... in a collection of nerve fibers between vertebrae called the dorsal root ganglion. When this virus becomes active later in life, it causes shingles.