Sensory neuropathy may cause central neuronal reorganization but does not respecify perceptual quality or localization of sensation

OBJECTIVES: Functional reorganization in the somatosensory network after peripheral nerve lesions has been suspected to modify the clinical expression of symptoms. However, no conclusive evidence exists to support this notion. We addressed this question by investigating the topographic distribution of the subjective sensory report in various chronic human mononeuropathies. METHODS: We report the clinical results of 86 patients who were diagnosed with meralgia paresthetica, 86 patients with ulnar neuropathy at the elbow, and 203 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. RESULTS: In the carpal tunnel syndrome group, 10% of the patients exhibited a spread of sensory symptoms beyond the innervation territory of the median nerve. As previously reported, this spread was contingent upon an indirect compressive lesion of the ulnar nerve at the wrist. In all of the patients who were affected with meralgia paresthetica or ulnar neuropathy at the elbow, the peripheral referral of sensation was always within the anatomic distribution of the affected nerve. DISCUSSION: In human neuropathies, the projected sensory symptoms are restricted to the innervation territories of the affected nerves, with no extraterritorial spread. Thus, the somatosensory localization function remains accurate, despite the central reorganization that presumably occurs after nerve injury. We conclude that reorganization of the sensory connections within the central nervous system after peripheral nerve injury in humans is a clinically silent adaptive phenomenon. PMID: 22699137 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]