This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Small fiber peripheral neuropathy is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2008) |
Small fiber peripheral neuropathy is a type of neuropathy. It is also called small fiber neuropathy, small fiber sensory neuropathy (SFSN), and C fiber neuropathy. Small nerve fibers are the nerve fibers near the skin's surface, which is why the symptoms deal with sensation. Usually the symptoms start in the feet and lower legs.
The symptoms are insensitivity to heat and/or cold, tingling, numbness, muscle weakness, cramps, pain, and other symptoms. People describe the pain as an ice pick being poked into bone, like an electric shock, or walking on broken glass. Sometimes the pain causes a loss in the ability to feel when injury occurs, so one may be bleeding or have a skin injury and not even know it.
Unfortunately it is a disorder diagnosed by ruling out everything else. In fact, electromyography (EMG tests), which are good in diagnosing other neuropathies are usually not good in detecting small fiber neuropathies. In some cases it can be diagnosed by biopsy, but that would still not affect treatment of the symptoms. Sometimes the disorder is caused by diabetes or alcoholism, but most of the time it is idiopathic. Since there are no known causes for most cases and most tests do not identify it, not much money is spent on curing idiopathic cases.
There is no current treatment to cure small fiber peripheral neuropathy, but Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is often used as well as plasmapheresis. For forms caused by diabetes or toxins those underlying condition are treated to reduce progression of the disease and symptoms. For cases without those conditions there is only treatment of the symptoms.
See also
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 29 July 2008, at 20:43.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Small fiber peripheral neuropathy".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.