Short-term oral isotretinoin therapy does not cause clinical or subclinical peripheral neuropathy.

Background: Subclinical neurophysiologic abnormalities mainly suggestive of sensory fibers dysfunction were observed in some patients after 1 and 3 months of treatment with oral acitretin. Moreover, two cases of peripheral sensory neuropathy and one of sensorimotor polyneuropathy were observed after short-term oral administration of this compound.

Objective: The objective of this prospective study was to investigate whether short-term treatment with oral isotretinoin can also affect peripheral nerve function.

Methods: Serial neurologic and neurophysiologic examinations were performed on 18 young patients with severe nodulocystic acne prior to and 1 and 3 months after the onset of oral isotretinoin treatment (1 mg/kg per day).

Results: Clinical neurologic examination before and under treatment disclosed no abnormalities in any of the patients. There were no significant differences between the pre- and post-treatment neurophysiologic parameters. Furthermore, evaluation of the serial neurophysiologic measurements in each patient separately under oral isotretinoin treatment revealed no changes fulfilling the criteria of abnormality.

Conclusions: Short-term administration of oral isotretinoin in young patients does not cause clinical or subclinical neuropathy.