The Peripheral Nerve Function in Chronic Renal Failure

In uremic patients the sensory conduction velocity was relatively more reduced in the wristelbow segment than in the digit‐wrist segment of the median nerve when the nervous impulse was initiated by supramaximal stimuli delivered to sensory fibers in digit 1 or 3. The proximal segment became affected earlier in the course of progressive kidney insufficiency than the distal segment. These findings were also apparent from the longitudinal course in the individual patient, and it is suggested that the uremic intoxication of the axon membrane function leads to a decremental impulse propagation.