Hypesthesia
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| R20.1 | Hypesthesia of the skin |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
Hypesthesia or hypoesthesia referred to a circumscribed or general reduced sensitivity of touch and pressure sensitivity of the skin . It is often, but not generally, associated with a disturbance in pain perception ( hypalgesia ), temperature perception ( thermhypesthesia ) and vibration and position perception ( pallhypesthesia ). A decrease on one side of the body is called hemihypesthesia , whereas a complete loss of sensitivity is called anesthesia . A related symptom that often occurs at the same time is paresthesia (mostly tingling sensations when touched).
The hypaesthetic area gives the neurologist information about the height of the lesion : In the case of peripheral nerve damage , it corresponds to the supply area of the corresponding nerve; for nerve root irritation ( radiculopathy ) the analogous dermatome .
The cause is damage to the skin itself as a sensory organ (for example, after burns), the peripheral nerves ( polyneuropathy ), the nerve plexus (traffic accident), the nerve roots emerging from the spinal cord ( herniated disc ) or, often in the context of a cerebral infarction , the ascending pathways to the brain ( Lemniscal system ), the thalamus or the central processing in the somatosensory cortex in question. Hypesthesia can also be a symptom of poisoning or insufficient blood flow ( ischemia ) in the skin.
