Trench Foot or Non-Freezing Cold Injury As a Painful Vaso-Neuropathy: Clinical and Skin Biopsy Assessments

Abstract

A range of skin biopsy markers and plantar nerve conduction studies are useful objective assessments for the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy in NFCI. Our results suggest that an increase in blood vessels following tissue ischaemia/hypoxia could be associated with disproportionate and abnormal nerve fibres (irritable nociceptors), and may lead to NFCI as a "painful vaso-neuropathy."