[Diabetic radiculopathy]

Four patients (two men and two women, aged between 54 and 75 years), known to have type II diabetes since two to twenty years, had for several months been suffering from segmental pain of thoracoabdominal or lumbosacral distribution. Diabetic radiculopathy was confirmed by paravertebral electromyography. Analgesics having brought insufficient relief, treatment with an insulin infusion pump was commenced. The pains disappeared within 2-14 days. Even when the infusion treatment was no longer used, pains did not recur under an euglycaemic regimen. These results suggest that the transitory use of insulin infusion by pump can be a worthwhile therapeutic alternative in diabetic radiculopathy.