Critical Illness Neuropathy

Abstract

Critical illness neuropathy frequently accompanies the septic syndrome in inten sive care units. Another entity that may occur independently or concurrently in crit ically ill patients is a myopathy, giving rise to difficulties in distinguishing between them. The two patients described had sensorimotor axonal peripheral neuropathy. Ax onopathy as a rule has a poor prognosis for recovery, which is slow and often incom plete. There are few reports of the functional outcome after rehabilitation therapy. The two patients described had 5-6 weeks of active rehabilitation therapy with improve ment from moderate/severe disability at the onset to slight debility at the end of ther apy. Key Words: Septic syndrome—Systemic inflammatory response syndrome—Crit ical illness neuropathy—Rehabilitation.