Peripheral neuropathy response to erythropoietin in type 2 diabetic patients with mild to moderate renal failure

This study assessed the added effect of 6 months of erythropoietin (EPO) administration in patients suffering from diabetic neuropathy with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) managed with gabapentin.Twenty diabetic patients with mild to moderate CKD were included; 12 in gabapentin and 8 in EPO + gabapentin group. The subjects underwent nerve conduction studies (NCS) at the initiation of the investigation and after 6-month treatment. NCS were made in deep and superficial peroneal, tibial, and sural nerves.After 6 months, in both the groups, proximal motor latency (PML) nonsignificantly improved in deep peroneal and tibial nerves; conversely, dorsal motor latency (DML) got slightly impaired in these two nerves. A nonsignificant disruption and improvement was observed in deep peroneal and tibial motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV), respectively, in gabapentin group. Although the F-wave of tibial and deep peroneal nerves remained stable in gabapentin group, a nonsignificant improvement was observed in EPO + gabapentin group. H-reflex of tibial nerve and all the evaluated parameters of sural and superficial peroneal nerves remained constant in all patients.Thus, it can be concluded that 6-month administration of EPO + gabapentin, or gabapentin alone in mild to moderate CKD patients with diabetic neuropathy could not improve nerve performance.