A Potentially Treatable Form of Diabetic Neuropathy

Diabetes mellitus is well known to cause many different types of peripheral neuropathy, the most common of which is a distal, symmetric, length-dependent, sensorimotor polyneuropathy. Less common is diabetic lumbosacral radiculoplexus neuropathy (DLRPN), which has many names, including diabetic amyotrophy. DLRPN is typically abrupt in onset, painful, and asymmetric — but scattered reports have suggested that, occasionally, it may be more gradual in onset, painless, and symmetric.

Researchers have now investigated the nosology of a painless, motor-predominant diabetic neuropathy. They retrospectively reviewed data from 23 diabetic patients with this clinical syndrome and electrophysiological evidence of a lumbosacral plexopathy, as well as a …