[Diseases of the peripheral and visual nervous system during infection with human immunodeficiency virus].

Introduction: Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often accompanied by neurological complications. One of these includes disorders affecting the peripheral and visual nervous system, especially during the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) stage.

Development: The peripheral neuropathies associated with infection by HIV are an assorted group of disorders, which include acute or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, multiple mononeuropathy and neuropathies related to the herpes zoster virus or cytomegalovirus. The most common and clinically important of the neuropathies is painful distal sensory polyneuropathy (DSP). The most severely affected cranial nerves are V and VII. The isolation of HIV from the affected nerves suggests a direct role, but an immune mechanism is also possible. Although cytomegalovirus may be associated with a variety of peripheral nerve syndromes, its clinical presentation as a primary demyelinating polyneuropathy is unusual.

Conclusions: DSP and antiretroviral toxic neuropathy are the most common HIV-associated neuropathies. Both HIV infection, by itself, and the neurotoxicity of certain drugs in tritherapy contribute to the development of painful peripheral sensory neuropathy. In researching into the cause of HIV-associated neuropathy further studies are needed to determine the relative roles played by the viral infection and the activation of the immunological factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of the damage done in axons, the dorsal root ganglion and in the sensory pathways in the spinal cord.