Distal paresthesia in patients with cervical cord lesions

Nine patients complaining of distal paresthesia were found to have spinal cord lesions with no evidence of peripheral nerve disease. This pattern may be due to central nervous system dysfunction, with a lesion being intramedullary or extramedullary. The sensory deficits were initially asymmetric. Paresthesias could originate from the hands and progress to the stocking-glove pattern. It was usually more severe in hands than in feet. The abnormal somatosensory evoked potentials, found in all patients, indicated a lesion involving the posterior column, a site supposed to be the pathologic basis of paresthesia. As hands and feet have relatively large somatotopic representation in the posterior column of the cervical cord, the paresthesia tends to localize over distal portions of extremities.