Neuropathy with Hep B

How common is nueropathy with hepatitis B?

I am on day 38 in hospital and the nueropathy began approximately a week and a half ago… No feeling to numbness in feet and now calves; if touched feels like hot nails being driven thru them.

Hands a bit better pins and needles but heavy and constrained like having huge mittens on them…

Nuero came and did bedside tests pushing and pulling and asking what I felt and where…

Haven’t seen nuero again he supposed to come back and talk to me…

They started me on gabapentin 100 mg 3x day and I’m now up to 300 mg 3xday but not feeling a whole lot better yet… Still can’t even stand much less walk… And I could do both when I came in…

Yesterday’s labs showed much improved numbers ALT AT 55; AST @ 109; AND BILLIRUBIN AT 3…

ANY THOUGHTS?

Dear @Tinakerns,

That sounds really debilitating and sorry to hear about that.

With regards to Hep B and associated neuropathies, they are quite rare. There’s a couple of case reports here and there (Chronic neuropathy associated with immune complexes of hepatitis B virus - ScienceDirect, Demyelinating neuropathy associated with hepatitis B virus infection: Detection of immune complexes composed of hepatitis B virus surface antigen - ScienceDirect, Mononeuropathy Multiplex in a Patient with Chronic Active Hepatitis B) , but nothing has been reported with any high frequency. It might be worthwhile also considering other independent causes of your neuropathy.

Hope this helps,
Thomas

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Hi Tina,

I can’t speak to or add anything to what Thomas shared about neuropathy and hepatitis B. I can just share with you my personal experience. I have cirrhosis, so I don’t know if that adds some component to the equation, but my G.I. has had me on 4 x 100mg per day of Gabapentin for neuropathic pain. I worked from 1x to 4x over the past year or two and I don’t notice that it does much.

I can’t remember if you mentioned before what stage of liver disease you have from hepatitis B. Maybe cirrhosis is a factor that can cause so much pain in different parts of our bodies. The difference is that I don’t think I have neuropathy (with the tingling, burning and numbness), I just have neuropathic pain. I have a pain specialist that added Nortriptyline at 1 x 10mg per day. Both these medications are approved by the FDA mainly for other diagnoses; one being epilepsy. However, both these and many others are prescribed by doctors for other purposes. I notice more of an effect from the Nortriptyline than the Gabapentin. The Nortriptyline at least helps at night to give me enough pain relief to give me another hour or two of sleep due to the severe insomnia I experience. I used to only average about 2 hours of sleep per night before taking this med, so now I can usually get at least 3-4 hours of sleep. I only take both of these meds before bed because they are supposed to have some sedating affect, but that probably doesn’t apply to you since you are in the hospital and don’t need to worry about daytime vs. nighttime.

Your situation sounds pretty dire and my heart goes out to you. I wish you had someone to advocate for you. I know how hard it can be when you don’t have much of a support system in real life, but at least you have this community to have some connection to. I will pray for you and ask everyone else in this community that your situation tugs at their heart strings, to pray for you also.

I know it’s not a lot when you are suffering so much, but good luck and God bless,

-Paul

I am actually newly diagnosed as of 1/21/22… They did ultra sound and I believe MRI of my liver but indicated right now no damage found.
I was discharged 9 days later and felt ok for about a week… That’s when weakness and falling began and when I went by ambulance back to hospital…ive been here now 40 days with neuropathy beginning about 15 days ago… I, too, am up to 400 mg 3x per day a and it seems to help… I can tell when it wears off. Doesn’t give complete relief but takes away feelings of nails being driven through feet when I try to stand up but, numbness still there. I did stand up today for first time in about 35 days…i had help getting there but once there I stood for five minutes
I then took two small steps towards wheel chair and was able to get into it by myself.
Prayers are always welcome… I think I’m just one of those unfortunate people where this virus became a storm inside my body…
Thank u all for replying to my post

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Hi Tinakerns
Sorry for what you are going through. I wish you all the best as I promise to mention you in my prayers.

Regards
Kinoti