Numbness of body parts includes such pathological sensations as a decrease in sensitivity or its complete absence. Often, numbness is accompanied by a feeling of tingling (paresthesia), weakness in the limbs. The symptom is characteristic of various neurological disorders: osteochondrosis, tunnel syndromes, neuropathy, tumors of the spine, stroke, hypovitaminosis, multiple sclerosis, and a number of others. For diagnostic purposes, radiography and CT of the spine, MRI of the brain, EMNG, and laboratory tests are performed. Treatment can consist of pharmacotherapy, manual therapy, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, IRT, and, if necessary, neurosurgical interventions.
Numbness is almost always associated with a primary pathology of the central or peripheral nervous system. The symptom develops when the conductive sensory pathways are damaged at any level: from the brain to the nerve endings in the skin. The etiology of numbness can have the following genesis:
Localization of numbness depends on the level of the lesion and can serve as an important diagnostic criterion. Numbness of the face and tongue, as a rule, indicates a pathology of the brain (stroke, intracranial tumors, abscess). This condition may be accompanied by muscle paresis, ataxia, aphasia, hyperreflexia. It is also impossible to exclude neuritis of the facial and trigeminal nerve.
Hand numbness occurs with carpal tunnel syndrome, Raynaud's disease, cervical osteochondrosis, metabolic polyneuropathy. A disorder in the sensitivity of the legs is characteristic of lumbosacral osteochondrosis, cauda equina syndrome, and arthritis. Numbness of the foot may be associated with hypothermia, diabetic and alcoholic neuropathy, obliterating endarteritis. Numbness of the extremities can be accompanied by a number of unpleasant sensations: burning in the soles and toes, tingling, cramps.