Study on prevalence of peripheral neuropathy among patients on hemodialysis

Background: The incidence and prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease is increasing slowly. Peripheral Neuropathy among CKD patients is the most common neurological complication of uremia, but still it is an under estimated problem adversely affecting the patient's quality of life. It is more often a silent burden for the patient, progressively affecting his/her quality of life. Hence, this study aimed at analyzing and elaborating the diverse manifestations of CKD and establish the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy among patients with CKD undergoing hemodialysis in our Hospital. Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional study done on patients with CKD undergoing hemodialysis at Government Vellore Medical college and Hospital for a duration of 6 months from July 2017 to December 2017. After obtaining informed consent, the participants satisfying the inclusion criteria were asked detailed history and clinical examination was performed according to the well-designed proforma cited below. The presence of neuropathy was assessed using Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) Scores. Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 47.87 years. Most of the patients belonged to the age group 40-70 years. Out of 60 cases, there were 35 (58.0%) males and 25 (42.0%) females. The Male to Female sex ratio was 1.38:1. The prevalence of clinical Uremic distal symmetrical sensory-motor peripheral neuropathy assessed by MNSI in the CKD on HD population was 71.66%. The smallest MNSI score obtained in the study population was 2 and the largest score was 7. Conclusion: Uremic neuropathy is the most common neurological complication in patients with uraemia. MNSI physical assessment could be used as a simple bed side examination to determine the presence or absence of uremic peripheral neuropathy.