Neuropathy associated with Brescia-Cimino arteriovenous fistulas
W. Knezevic and F. L. Mastaglia
We performed a clinical and electrophysiologic study of median and ulnar
nerve function to determine the frequency of neuropathy in 21 patients who
had unilateral Brescia-Cimino arteriovenous fistulas and who were
undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. Seven patients had symptomatic median
or ulnar neuropathy in the arm with the fistula, and abnormalities of motor
and/or sensory nerve conduction were found in all of these patients. Of the
14 asymptomatic patients, nine had electrophysiologic evidence of median
and/or ulnar neuropathy in the arm with the fistula. Evidence of
subclinical median or ulnar neuropathy was also found in the contralateral
extremity in 11 of the 21 subjects. Statistically significant differences
were found for median and ulnar sensory nerve action potential latencies
and motor conduction velocities and for the median distal motor latency
between the arms with and without fistulas in the group as a whole, and the
mean interarm differences for these values were statistically significant.
