Neuropathy associated with hepatitis in patients maintained on haemodialysis.

During a study of peripheral nerve function in chronic renal failure, 11 patients who were being treated by chronic intermittent haemodialysis developed serum hepatitis. Before the infection there was a trend towards improvement in nerve conduction velocities. A pronounced deterioration in the conduction velocities in motor fibres of peripheral nerves occurred in association with hepatitis. In the months after recovery from the infection there was again a trend towards improvement in conduction velocities. We suggest that this reflects the occurrence of a peripheral neuropathy which is at least in part demyelinating. The neuropathy is related to the serum hepatitis, but its pathogenesis is indeterminate.