The clinical picture of lead neuropathy was classically described as a painless progressive motor neuropathy with axonal loss. The literature review fails to demonstrate a consensus on the site of axonal loss. This is an EMG report of a patient who developed a late lead neuropathy after a shotgun injury. A 69-year-old Filipino, healthy, male nondrinker sustained a shotgun injury to his left elbow. Nineteen years later he developed abdominal pain, followed by generalized weakness, distal greater than proximal in the extremities, and impaired pin-prick, proprioception, and two-point discrimination. He became nonambulatory and totally dependent in daily activities. He was lost to follow-up for 2 years until January 1993 when he presented with a blood lead level of 84 micrograms/dL. EMG examination revealed a sensorimotor peripheral polyneuropathy with severe axonal loss. This case demonstrates that axonal loss is the predominant feature in lead neuropathy and the location of pathology is in the peripheral nerves.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.