Abstract
A young man with subacute neuronopathy following tetracycline treatment is described. The symptoms started as a sensory dorsal root affection but by time also involved motor nerves. He developed a severe sensory ataxia with pseudoathetotic movements. Other possible aetiologies were scrutinized and excluded. Tetracycline induced neuronopathy is hitherto not reported in the literature. We propose a possible association between treatment with tetracycline and the development of sensory neuronopathy in this patient.
Highlights
Sensory neuropathy has been reported in patients treated with other antibiotics e.g. penicillin or a semisynthetic derivate,[1] chloramphenicol,[2] and metronidazole.[3]
Electrophysiological investigation including neurography, EMG and Sensory evoked potentials (SEP) and nerve-biopsy indicated that the lesion was most prominent in the dorsal and by time ventral nerve roots
These findings are in agreement with those found in patients treated with nitrofurantoin in which the investigators found degeneration of posterior and to a lesser degree anterior nerve roots and ganglion cells on post-mortem examination.[7]
Summary
Sensory neuropathy has been reported in patients treated with other antibiotics e.g. penicillin or a semisynthetic derivate,[1] chloramphenicol,[2] and metronidazole.[3] Nitrofurantoin treatment has caused sensory-motor neuropathy[4] and dapsone treatment has caused motor neuropathy.[5] A topical tetracycline induced neuritis has been reported in one patient,[6] otherwise no reports of an association between neuropathy and orally taken tetracycline has been published, to our knowledge
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