Reply To: Anyone else have nystagmus in CIDP?

As a neurologist who deals with nystagmus every day, one would not think that CIDP alone would commonly cause nystagmus. Nystagmus (i.e. involuntary jumping of eyes) is most commonly caused by imbalance between the ears. The vestibular nerves are not vulnerable to CIDP, and thus should not be a source of nystagmus. In addition, even if they were, the vestibular nerves and for that matter all of the cranial nerves are short nerves compared to those that go to the hands and feet, and the chance of conduction being affected by a process that damages myelin is much smaller than longer nerves that are a bigger target.

Disorders that cause neuropathy and cerebellar damage simultaneously, such as CANVAS, might be associated with nystagmus due to the cerebellar component. CANVAS is actually a dorsal root ganglion disease, rather than a demyelinating neuropathy like CIDP, so the connection is not tight.