Other neurological emergencies

Other neurological emergencies

·        Meningococcal meningitis.  See Infections of the CNS

·        Encephalitis: fever, stiff neck, strange behaviour, unable to make new memories, seizures. Acyclovir 10 mg/kg 8 hourly (> 20% caused by Herpes Simplex)

·        Temporal arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis:  See Giant Cell arteritis/Temporal Arteritis.

Other

·        Trigeminal neuralgia: momentary severe shooting pain in one division of 5^th nerve due to touching, chewing or speaking. Responds to Tegretol

·        Locked-in syndrome: pontine infarction ® quadriplegia and variable loss of all reflex and horizontal eye movements. Vertical eye movement or eyelid movement may be the only means of communication

·        Cerebellar infarction/haemorrhage: vertigo, headache, and abnormalities of eye movements (eg saccadic deficits). May lead to life threatening compression/coning of the brainstem