Somatosensory Evoked Potential Study in Patients with Polyneuropathy with Chronic Renal Failure

ABSTRACT

Polyneuropathy is a common complication of chronic renal failure and usually remains stable or improves with hemodialysis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) study for the evaluation of polyneuropathy in chronic renal failure(CRF) patients who were on hemodialysis. The clinical findings, conventional nerve conduction study and SEP study were analyzed and compared in 30 patients with chronic renal failure before and after hemodialysis. Abnormal electrophysiological findings were shown in 25 patients(83.3%) of whom 8 patients showed abnormal somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) study only. Therefore it would be useful to perform both the somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) study and conventional nerve conduction study(NCS) for the evaluation of polyneuropathy. Improvement of somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) finding is correlated well with that of clinical symptoms after hemodialysis. Therefore, somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) study can be used to monitor with progression of polyneuropathy in patients with chronic renal failure(CRF) who were on hemodialysis.