n-hexane polyneuropathy. An occupational disease of shoemakers

The epidemiological, clinical, electrophysiological and nerve biopsy findings of 3 cases of n-hexane neuropathy in shoe industry are reported. The disease affects more than 1 person working in the same environment, regardless of their specific role, and occurs in factories where standards of hygiene are low. In the most severe cases the picture of peripheral neuropathy is associated with symptoms suggesting a concurrent involvement of the central nervous system such as dysarthria, disproportionate ataxia of the gait, blurred vision, and sometimes, after the recovery of the peripheral neuropathy, appearance of leg spasticity. Light- and electron microscopic study of peripheral nerve biopsies shows that the toxic produces a primary axonopathy characterized by segmental swellings of the fibers, due to accumulation of filaments. Retraction of the myelin from the node and segmental demyelination are secondary to the axonal changes. Experimental models of hexacarbon neurotoxicity may offer an explanation for the anatomical substrate underlying the symptoms related to the involvement of the central nervous system.