Investigating the Prevalence of Peripheral Neuropathy in Chemical Burns

Abstract

Background: With the growing number and variety of chemical agents used in industry and for home purposes, chemical burns and their consequences have drawn physicians’ attention. Involvement of the nervous system that is a major consequence of systemic chemical exposure can be problematic in local chemical burns, as well. This study was designed to evaluate the peripheral nervous system in chemical burn victims. Objectives: Investigating the peripheral neuropathy prevalence in patients with chemical burn in a Burn Hospital, Shiraz. performing electrodiagnostic (EDX) study for all patients both on tibial and median nerve based on the reference data and in order to rule out polyneuropathy. Examining Motor nerve conduction velocities using standard procedures with concentric needle electrodes among all samples. Defining Peripheral neuropathies scored as mono- or polyneuropathy compared with the number of involved nerves. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 59 patients with chemical burns were recruited from those referring to Shiraz Central Burn Hospital. The patients underwent a nerve conducting study besides electromyography in order to evaluate the tibial and median nerves after filling the informed consent. Also, a questionnaire covering the demographic data, the chemical agent responsible for the burn, and some other relevant information was given to each patient. The incidence of peripheral neuropathy and distance was calculated with a 95% incidence. Results: Twenty-three patients (38.9%) had peripheral neuropathy, of whom 19 cases (32.2%) had mono-neuropathy and 4 cases (6.78%) had poly-neuropathy. Axonotmesis was frequently found in patients with mono-neuropathy. The most frequent chemical agent responsible for burn was acid (56.4%). Hands were the most common site of burn (n=22 35.4%). We also evaluated the mean of total body burned surface area as 2.24±1.03% (1-9%). Conclusion: Based on our results, peripheral neuropathy has a high prevalence in localized chemical burns.