Handbook of Clinical Neurology: Neuropathies (Volume 51)

The present volume is conceived as an update of the two volumes in the first edition of the Handbook devoted to diseases of nerves. The progress made in electrophysiology, chemistry, pathogenesis and pathophysiology of these diseases more than justified a revision of the earlier work. Particular emphasis is again given to the clinical aspects. This approach means that certain concepts fall outside the framework of the present volume, e.g. hereditary neuropathies will be covered in the forthcoming volume on hereditary system degenerations. On the other hand, a fair degree of attention has been devoted to the many diseases in internal medicine that also involve the peripheral nervous system. Since the etiology of the neuropathies is diverse and since as yet no system is available to categorise the neuropathies according to the nature of the disorder, this (seeming) ambiguity could not be avoided. This is compensated for by the cumulative index to each volume of the Handbook, integrating the contents of the first and the revised edition - a major feature of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology.