--there is yet no effective treatment for ganglionopathy/neuronopathy, beyond trying to create an optimum healing environment in one's body with proper diet and supplementation (one of the reasons a lot of us around here take large doses of B12 and other vitamins/minerals that help support nerve function). But a lot of the progression of the condition depends upon the extent of damage and exactly where it occurs in the dorsal root ganglia.

Ganglionopathy/neuronopathy differs from other peripheral neuropathies not only in location of the initial attack but in what part of the nerve cell is attacked. In most other neuropathies of an ischemic or metabolic nature, the axon or nerve shaft, or, in the case of demyelinating neuropathies, the meylin covering that insulates that shaft, are subject to deterioration first--damage to the cell body, or soma, is secondary to that, and happens later. In ganglionopathies/neuronopathies, though, the initial attack is on the cell bodies in the ganglia, with damage to the axons or myelin secondary.

There are some situations in which both cell body and axon are attacked sort of simultaneously--certain infectious and toxic situations most notably.

The trick here is that while damaged axons or myelin, given the proper conditions and removal of the cause of damage, may well regenerate (or new axons may grow from the cell body to take over function), cell bodies are a lot less likely to do so once damaged. Until recently, in fact, the general consensus in the medical research world was that once a nerve cell dies, that's it--that pathway is gone, and though regenerating axons from other nerve cells might take over some of that cell's function, this was not something that could be regularly counted--recovery would likely be patchy and incomplete. And, of course, mature nerve cells do not divide and reproduce, so dying cells deplete one's overall total. Some more recent research into stem cells and the like is beginning to question this (there may be some nerve cells that can reproduce under certain conditions), and one day there may be neuroregenerative therapies, such as those that are being worked on for spinal damage patients, that may be applicable to the ganglia, but that realm is still in its infancy.

Still, at one time it was thought that even axons could not regenerate--we have since obtained considerable evidence that is not the case (and there are certainly people on these boards, such as myself, that do have skin-biopsy documented axonal improvement over time). So I don't think you have to consign yourself necessarily to progressive deterioration.

Your eventual prognosis would also depend on which nerve cells are affected--the large majority of neuronopathies are primarily sensory.

See:

http://neuromuscular.wustl.edu/antib...on.html#canvas

http://neuromuscular.wustl.edu/nother/axon.htm#drg

http://www.nature.com/mt/journal/v12...20051298a.html

http://www.mendeley.com/research/dis...-disc-in-rats/

http://www.bioportfolio.com/resource...a-Neurons.html

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/4/7/1736.full.pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...7.00695.x/full


As you can see, there's a lot of research interest in the dorsal root ganglia, though much of it involves reconnection to the spinal cord and at this time mostly just rats are involved . . .