Peripheral nerve function in chronic liver disease

Peripheral nerve function has been studied in 50 patients with chronic liver disease. An increase in the latency or a reduction in the response amplitude of the evoked sensory potential of the median nerve was detected in 34 of the 50 subjects. This was in striking contrast to the paucity of neurological signs and symptoms suggestive of peripheral nerve damage seen in these patients. There was no evidence to show that alcohol was responsible for the neuropathy. Abnormalities in the excitability changes of sensory nerve during ischaemia were detected in seven of the 16 subjects whose distal sensory latencies were within normal limits. A critical evaluation of the hypotheses which have been postulated to account for the increased resistance of peripheral nerve to inactivation by ischaemia has been made. It is concluded that an increase of the permeability of the periaxonal diffusion barrier to K offers the most acceptable explanation for this phenomenon.