Acute sensory neuropathy associated with a Varicella-Zoster infection

Introduction. Sensory neuropathy is a clinical entity which has been considered to be found in relation to neoplasia, Sjogren's syndrome, long-term pyridoxine treatment, or to be idiopathic. Clinical case. We present the case of a 33 year old woman who developed acute sensory neuropathy after being diagnosed as having varicella. She had no previous history of weight loss or other signs of neoplasia, no dryness of the mucous membranes or history of arthritis and had taken no toxic substances or pyridoxine, thus ruling out other causes of sensory neuropathy. The acute varicella infection was apparent from the clinical characteristics and the presence of specific IgM in serum. Conclusion. The clinical signs, in the absence of other circumstances which might have been related, together with the presence of acute varicella-zoster vines infection seems to indicate that the two conditions were related.