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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Peripheral neuropathy is a common condition occurring when injury or disease damages your peripheral nervous system. Originating from your brain and spinal cord, peripheral nerves extend to your skin, muscle, and tissues. Your peripheral nervous system relays vital information between your body and the brain in the form of electrical impulses. There are three types of peripheral nerves. Motor nerves regulate the movements of your body's skeletal muscles. Sensory nerves transmit sensations, such as heat, vibration, touch, and pain to the brain. Autonomic nerves regulate the activities of internal organs and glands. Each nerve is made up of many interconnected cells called neurons that transmit impulses at lightning speed. This constant exchange allows your brain to respond to vital inputs from your body. However, damage to the nerves disrupts this critical link, resulting in peripheral neuropathy. Damage to a single nerve, called mononeuropathy, usually result from injury or repetitive stress. An example of mononeuropathy is carpal tunnel syndrome. Repeated impact to the nerve in your wrist may cause tingling, pain, and weakness in your hand, arm, and shoulder. Involvement of multiple nerves, called polyneuropathy, is far more common. Damage typically begins in the nerves farthest from the central nervous system and progresses symmetrically. Polyneuropathy can be caused by diabetes and other systemic diseases, infections, or exposure to toxic substances. One or all of the three nerve types may be affected and symptoms are specific to each. Damage to sensory nerves, characteristic of diabetes, can lead to numbness in your hands and feet with diminished ability to detect temperature, insensitivity to pain, or oversensitivity to pain. Polyneuropathy may also cause damage to your motor nerves, which can result in muscle weakness, twitching, and pain. Common signs of autonomic nerve damage include intolerance to heat, loss of bladder control, gastrointestinal disturbances, impairment of breathing, and impairment of heart rate. Generally, treatment of peripheral neuropathy is aimed at treating the underlying cause and providing symptomatic relief. If you have mononeuropathy, you may receive pain relief medications, physical therapy to maintain muscle strength, or surgery to release compressed or entrapped nerves. If you have polyneuropathy, your doctor will treat the underlying disease to prevent further damage to the nerves. He or she may recommend pain medication to relieve your symptoms. If you have polyneuropathy with sensory impairment, your doctor may recommend orthopedic shoes to prevent foot injury.
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Burts, Turner, Rhodes & Thompson
Spartanburg, SC
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Furr, Henshaw & Ohanesian
Myrtle Beach, SC
www.scmedicalmalpractice.com
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Todd J. Kenyon
Attorney at Law
Minneapolis, MN
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Andrew Needle
Needle Gallagher & Ellenberg, P.A.
Miami, FL
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
