ELECTRICAL SKIN RESISTANCE TEST IN EVALUATION OF PERIPHERAL NERVE INJURIES

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Abstract
THE MEASUREMENT of electrical skin resistance has been recommended by Richter and Katz1 and Jasper and Robb2 as a practical test in the evaluation of injuries of peripheral nerves. This method, in contrast to the sensory examination, does not depend on the cooperation of the patient. It can therefore be used with uncooperative, or even unconscious, patients and may give objective results in cases of hysteria or suspected malingering. Richter and Katz examined 10 patients with injury of the ulnar nerve and found a correlation of skin resistance with sensory changes in most of them. Of the 27 patients with various peripheral nerve lesions studied by Jasper and Robb, all but 2 showed a correlation of the areas of increased skin resistance with the areas of sensory loss. This method is now being used on a large scale in the evaluation of nerve injuries and in the study