General Approach to Diabetic Neuropathy

Abstract

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus. It causes microvascular and macrovascular damages and diagnosis can easily be overlooked by most physicians. Generally; the diagnosis of DN can be omitted by physicians dealing with diabetes treatment since it starts with non-specific findings, shows slow progression and can be confused with complaints in many diseases. It is estimated that there will be 578 million people diagnosed with DN in the world in 2030. Chronic hyperglycemia, microvascular insufficiency, oxidative and nitrosative stress, impaired neurotropism and autoimmunity are some of the factors that cause nerve destruction. Paresthesias such as tingling, burning, electrical shock-like sensations, numbness, throbbing, compression, pinpricks to the skin, complaints are the most common symptoms. There is no treatment for pathogenetic mechanisms in diabetic neuropathy that completely eliminates neuronal damage. The purposes of treatment is slowing down the progression of the disease, controlling the pain, preventing complications, quick and adequate treatment of occurred complications, maintaining the functional capacity of the patient. In this review, we aimed to comprehensively address the general approach to diabetic neuropathy, diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords

• diabetes mellitus
• tanı
• tedavi
• nöropati
• nöropatik ağrı
• diabetes mellitus
• neuropathic pain
• neuropathy
• diagnosis
• treatment