Extended neuralgic amyotrophy syndrome

Neuralgic amyotrophy refers to an idiopathic syndrome where weakness and wasting occur in one limb, usually in the muscles innervated by the upper brachial plexus. Seven patients are presented who developed cranial nerve involvement (facial, spinal accessory) in the midst of a typical attack of neuralgic amyotrophy or who developed either recurrent brachial or brachial and lumbosacral plexopathies. An underlying demyelinating neuropathy was identified in one patient and two patients were herion addicts. These reports confirm that neuralgic amyotrophy may occasionally form part of a more extensive disorder of the peripheral nervous system, thereby providing indirect support for the role of a systemic immunological factor in pathoetiology.