User:Patrickmcgillen/neurapraxia

My group's proposal (in the form of an article outline)

Intro: What is it?

 * temporary failure of nerve conduction in the absence of structural changes, due to blunt injury, compression, or ischemia


 * Focal Conduction Block
 * Transient
 * Ischemic
 * affects mainly large-caliber axons
 * More persistent
 * demyelinating
 * attributable to an underlying primary/segmental demyelination
 * axonal constriction


 * injury to a nerve resulting in paralysis without degeneration and followed by rapid and complete recovery of function
 * partial or complete conduction block over a segment of a nerve fiber, with temporary paralysis
 * nerve condition characterized by localized loss of conduction that causes short-term paralysis, there is no degeneration of the axon and complete recovery is usual

Causes of Neuropraxia

 * focal blocking of impulse conduction usually due to compression
 * compression:
 * exogenous pressure affecting a peripheral nerve causes decreased blood flow and structural deformation of nerve fibers


 * conduction study
 * waveform, amplitude, duration
 * latency and conduction velocity
 * types of abnormalities
 * reference: Peripheral Neuropathy 4th edition, 2005

Diagnosis of Neurapraxia

 * The most commonly described mechanism of injury is axial compression with a component of either hyperflexion or hyperextension
 * early signs of nerve injury include:
 * disturbance of sensation, weakness or paralysis of muscle, vasomotor and sudomotor paralysis in distribution of the affected nerve or nerves, abnormal sensitivity of nerve at point of injury


 * Neurapraxia has been reported in association with developmental cervical spinal stenosis, kyphosis, congenital fusions (Klippel-Feil syndrome), cervical instability (traumatic or developmental), and invertebral disc herniation.

Symptoms of Neurapraxia

 * large myelinated fibers more susceptible than small or unmyelinated ones
 * predominant symptoms:
 * loss of muscle strength
 * loss of touch sensation


 * disturbance of function can last from hrs to weeks only rarely months
 * An episode of cervical cord neurapraxia generally resolves in less than 10-15 minutes.

Treatments for Neurapraxia

 * prognosis for complete recovery is good
 * peripheral neurons are large, spatially complex cells whose size and connectivity compromise their capacity to repair
 * reference: Peripheral Neuropathy 4th edition, 2005


 * Studies have shown that 56% of athletes returning to contact sports experienced a recurrent episode of transient cervical cord neurapraxia.
 * This number was higher when an athlete returned to football versus another sport

Experimental Case/Research Study on Neuropraxia

 * Neurapraxia of the cervical spinal cord with transient quadriplegia
 * JS Torg, H Pavlov, SE Genuario, B Sennett, RJ Wisneski, BH Robie and C Jahre J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1986;68:1354-1370.
 * Cervical cord neurapraxia – An acute transient episode of bilateral sensory and motor abnormalities.