Acute Ataxia Flashcards
— Children with the acute onset of ataxia
Negative CT
Episodic ( intermittent) or chronic
Acute if trauma or ICT
following head or neck trauma require emergent for intracranial hemorrhage, cerebellar contusion, or a stroke (as the result of vascular injury)
Negative CT scan is reassuring (post concussion) patients with neck trauma may require further evaluation to identify a vertebrobasilar artery dissection
If no trauma but ICT, meningismus, CT
CT include posterior fossa tumor, hydrocephalus, cerebellar 🈺abscess, increased intracranial pressure with tonsillar herniation⛽️, and stroke.📟
●Weakness, areflexia – Children with acute ataxia, weakness, and areflexia are likely to have GBS or Miller Fisher syndrome.
Tick paralysis also presents with ataxia in conjunction with motor weakness and areflexia. The presence of an attached tick and improvement in symptoms after tick removal clinches this diagnosis
●Opsoclonus-myoclonus – Neuroblastoma is common among children with opsoclonus-myoclonus (although the percentage of children with neuroblastoma who have this paraneoplastic syndrome is small
