Peripheral neuropathy (peripheral neuritis) with bronchiectasis.

The ill-defined group of conditions comprising the syndrome of peripheral or multiple neuritis led Walshe (1946) to ask for a more precise definition. Elkington (1952) pointed out the advantages of the new term " peripheral neuropathy," as it avoids the suggestion that all the lesions are inflammatory in origin. Haymaker and Kernohan (1949), in a comprehensive study of peripheral neuropathy, found that the clinical picture may range from the slight lesion with peripheral weakness and paraesthesiae to a grave ascending fatal neuronitis involving the central nervous system as seen in the so-called Landry syndrome. They considered that the term " Landry-Guillain-Barre syndrome " should be applied to this group of so-called infective polyneuritis. As the syndrome may involve both the central and the peripheral nervous systems, we prefer the term " neuropathy syndrome," which, in the particular cases described here, refers to a bilateral symmetrical affection of the peripheral nerves of the limbs. This paper presents records of two patients who presented with a neuropathy and were found to have an associated bronchiectatic lesion.