1/40. Idiopathic small-fiber sensory neuropathy in childhood: A diagnosis based on objective findings on punch skin biopsy specimens. Idiopathic small-fiber sensory neuropathy (SFSN) has not previously been reported in children. Although affected patients complain of neuropathic pain, this condition is often difficult to diagnose because of the few objective physical signs and normal nerve conduction studies. We report a girl with idiopathic SFSN in whom the results of a sural nerve biopsy were normal, but punch skin biopsy revealed reduced intraepidermal nerve fiber density and established the diagnosis. Idiopathic SFSN should be considered in the differential diagnosis of children who have burning limb pain with no routine electrophysiologic or pathologic abnormalities. ( info) |
2/40. Transient neurologic symptoms after epidural analgesia in a five-year-old child. Transient neurologic symptoms occurred in a five-year-old child after discontinuation of epidural analgesia with bupivacaine and morphine, which had been established for two days after thoracotomy. The symptoms resolved within 12 hours with acetaminophen. ( info) |
| toxocara canis causes the visceral larva migrans syndrome in which central nervous involvement is rare. We report the case of a 40-year-old woman presenting with a subacute weakness of the right leg and dysaesthesiae in the right Th8-Th10 dermatomas. Spinal magnetic resonance imaging examination showed abnormal hyperintensity within the spinal cord. cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed eosinophilic pleocytosis. Antibody titres to toxocara canis were higher in the cerebrospinal fluid than in the serum. Treatment using mebendazole led to a complete clinical recovery, normalization of cerebrospinal fluid parameters and improvement in spinal magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities. ( info) |
4/40. Superficial nerve damage of thumb of laparoscopic surgeon. We report a case of digital nerve (superficial branch of the radial nerve) compression injury in the thumb caused by repeated compression at the proximal phalanx level by a finger grip of a laparoscopic instrument during laparoscopic surgery. ( info) |
5/40. Use of antecedent control to improve the outcome of rehabilitation for a client with frontal lobe injury and intolerance for auditory and tactile stimuli. KM, a single 23-year-old male, sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in a motor vehicle accident. Aggressive and uncooperative behaviour, resulting from the client's cognitive deficits and hypersensitivity to stimuli, made him unmanageable in a subacute rehabilitation setting. Minimizing sources of agitation reduced the client's outbursts and facilitated the completion of functional tasks, such as bathing and dressing. Modifying his environment also increased the client's participation in social and leisure activities. These changes improved the outcome of the client's rehabilitation. ( info) |
6/40. Neuropathic complications of mandibular implant surgery: review and case presentations. Injuries to trigeminal nerves during endosseous implant placement in the posterior mandible appear to occur acutely in approximately 5-15 of cases, with permanent neurosensory disorder resulting in approximately 8%. Nerve lateralization holds even higher risks from epineurial damage or ischaemic stretching. Neuropathy from implant compression and drill punctures can result in neuroma formation of all types, and in some cases precipitate centralized pain syndrome. Two patterns of clinical neuropathy are seen to result; hypoaesthesias with impaired sensory function, often seen with phantom pain, and hyperaesthesias with minimal sensory impairment but presence of much-evoked pain phenomena. The clinician must differentiate, through careful patient questioning and stimulus-response testing, those patients who are undergoing satisfactory spontaneous nerve recovery from those who are developing dysfunctional or dysaesthetic syndromes. Acute nerve injuries are treated with fixture and nerve decompression and combined with supportive anti-inflammatory, narcotic and anti-convulsant therapy. Surgical exploration, neuroma resection and microsurgical repair, with or without nerve grafting, are indicated when unsatisfactory spontaneous sensory return has been demonstrated, and in the presence of function impairment and intractable pain. ( info) |
| OBJECTIVE: To investigate integrative thermal perception in a patient with multiple sclerosis. DESIGN: Quantitative thermosensory testing was used to evaluate pain and other sensations produced by heat, cold, and the thermal grill pain illusion. PATIENT: The authors report on a 43-year-old patient with central pain manifest most strongly in her left arm and hand, contralateral to an upper cervical spinothalamic lesion due to multiple sclerosis. OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: Quantitative thermosensory testing showed that the patient had heat hypalgesia (no pain with stimuli of 45-50 degrees C) and cold allodynia (pain with innocuous cool temperatures, 25-10 degrees C). Whereas healthy subjects rated 20 degrees and 40 degrees C as nonpainful, but the thermal grill (intermixed 20 and 40 degrees C stimuli) as painful, the patient rated the thermal grill as less painful than 20 degrees C. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of thermal grill-evoked pain is consistent with the hypothesis that in some cases of central pain the loss of the thermosensory pathway results in disruption of the normal cold inhibition of burning pain. ( info) |
8/40. Relief of post-herpetic neuralgia by surgical removal of painful skin. We present a case of longstanding PHN treated by skin excision of the area of greatest pain (11.3 x 26.0 cm(2)). The operation reduced pain, eliminated tactile allodynia, and facilitated greatly reduced medication use over a 1-year follow-up period. Fourteen punch biopsies and 10 strips of skin (each 10 mm long) from the excised painful PHN skin were qualitatively assessed by double-label immunofluorescence using antibodies against protein-gene-product 9.5 (PGP9.5), 200 kDa neurofilament protein (NF), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and vanilloid receptor-1 (VR-1). Compared with a punch biopsy from mirror image skin, the pattern of cutaneous innervation in PHN skin was consistently and substantially different. The results may explain the anatomical basis of the capsaicin-response test and have implications for our understanding of clinical mechanisms underlying PHN pain. ( info) |
9/40. Accidental pneumothorax from a nasogastric tube in a patient with severe hemineglect: a case report. Nasogastric tubes are frequently used for nutrition of patients with neurologic diseases. We report an instance of inadvertant placement of a standard nasogastric tube into the left pleural space in a patient with right parietotemporal intracerebral hemorrhage and severe hemineglect on the left side. The 2 confirmatory maneuvers-aspiration of fluid and auscultating the abdomen on insufflating air-were false-positive. We conclude that only radiologic confirmation of the position of nasogastric tubes and the awareness of the associated dangers will help minimize the occurrence of such events in patients with disorders of perception or altered consciousness. ( info) |
10/40. Organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy: case report. Organophosphate induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN) is an uncommon clinical condition. It occurs in association with the ingestion of great amounts of organophosphate after the stimulation of cholinergic receptor. The clinical picture is characterized by a distal paresis in lower limbs associated with sensitive symptoms. Electrodiagnostic studies show a motor axonal neuropathy. Involvement of the central nervous system may occur. We describe a 39 years-old female patient who developed hyperesthesia associated with lower limbs paresis, fourteen days after she had ingested a dichlorvos-based insecticide. Electrophysiological study was characterized by an axonal polyneuropathy pattern. Pyramidal tract dysfunction was observed later in upper limbs. Considering that both peripheral and central nervous systems are involved we believe that the more appropriated term would be organophosphate induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN) instead of organophosphate induced delayed polyneuropathy (OPIDP). ( info) |