Question about PN
 

Hi everyone ~ I see there are several different types of PN, i.e. Sensory, Idiopathic, etc. All I know is I have PN, which is caused by spinal problems. I've had herniated discs and had 2 open spinal surgeries plus an SCS implant and removal. The doc just said I had PN, but never went further than that. At the time, I didn't know anything about it. Now i'm curious. LOL

So would it most likely be sensory PN? Or idiopathic? Or what? :D Or does it really matter? I do take Topamax for the pain, plus pain meds.

Thanks in advance for any info you may have. God bless. Hugs, Lee

The word neuropathy means "disease of nerves".
So some is metabolic, toxins, autoimmune, and others compressive from the spine or another joint.

One can have more than one type...diabetic for example on top of compressive. You can be low in B12, independently of the spinal compression.

It can get pretty complicated.

I hope you can find a doctor to help find reasons for it.

If your neuropathy--
 

--is definitely caused by spinal problems, it is more correctly termed a radiculopathy--a difficulty with the nerve roots that connect to the spinal cord. ("Radic" = "root" in Latin.)

Nerve roots contain both motor and sensory tracts, so one can have motor or sensory neuropathy from their compression (often both). Generally, in a major nerve trunk, the sensory fibers are on the outside--the farther periphery of the nerve cable--and the motor neurons lie deeper within the cylinder. Superficial compression tends to produce sensory symptoms; greater compression brings the motor fibers into the situation.

When the spinal cord itself is compromised, one has central nervous system disease, not peripheral neuropathy (technically).

Still, one can have more than one process going on--the "double crush hypothesis" postulates that a nerve compromised from some other cause, such as metabolic or autoimmune, that is then compressed will produce symptoms greater than what one would expect from "adding" each set of symptoms together.