The Causes, Classification, and Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathy

THE causes of peripheral neuropathy are multiple.¹ Because of a better understanding of the natural history of the peripheral neuropathies, improved approaches to detection and characterization, and improved classification, it should now be possible to categorize 75 per cent of patients with these disorders. Peripheral neuropathy is defined as deranged function and structure of peripheral motor, sensory, and autonomic neurons, involving either the entire neuron or selected levels. The disorders can appear clinically in diverse ways, depending on the severity of the process, the rate of progression, the anatomic structures affected, the population of neurons or Schwann cells affected, the.