Considering the frequency of the peripheral nervous system envolvement in leprosy 14 patients without clinical signs indicating impairment of the left ulnar nerve were submitted to electromyographic studies. All were chronic cases in which the disease had an evolution of three years for the most recent one, the longest during thirty one years. All patients were under leprosy treatment: nine had lepromatous leprosy, four had tuberculoid form, one had a dimorfous form. At the same time, as a control group, were studied 5 patients presenting clinical signis of injury of the left ulnar nerve. An electromiograph DISA with 3 channels, a Multistin estimulator and concentric electrodes were employed. In all the 19 cases the espontaneous activity, the type of recruiting reaction and the conduction velocity were analysed. Results were synthetized in Tables 1 and 2. The finding of electromyographic abnormalities in clinically healthy territores of 12/14 patients examined lead to the conclusion that in leprosy the agression to the peripheral nervous system is more extensive than that a clinical examination may disclose or else that the anatomical injuries to the nervous fibers do not retrogradate completely under the treatment's action as it may be infered by the clinical symptomatology.

Dada la frecuencia con que la lepra afecta al sistema nervioso, consideramos de interés realizar un estudio electromiográfico en zonas corporales clínicamente sanas. Hemos elegido para tal fin 14 enfermos que no tenían lesión sensitivo-motora clínicamente perceptible en el nervio cubital izquierdo. Hemos estudiado tambén un grupo de control de 5 enfermos con lesión evidente del mismo nervio. Se ha comprobado que de los 14 enfermos que aparentemente no tenían lesión del nervio cubital izquierdo, en 12 de ellos surgieron alteraciones electromiográficas que señalan la lesión del nervio, aunque en um grado menor que en el grupo de control. Este hecho nos hace pensar que la agresión que sufre el sistema nervioso periférico es de una extensión mayor que lo hace suponer la clínica, o que las lesiones anatómicas no retrogradan como nos lo sugiere el examen de los pacientes.