Four Cases of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy with Impaired Horizontal Vestibular Ocular Reflexes

Jang, Hyuk su; Oh, Sun-Young; Shin, Byoung-Soo; Seo, Man-Wook

Research in Vestibular Science > Accepted Articles

Hyuk su Jang¹, Sun-Young Oh¹, Byoung-Soo Shin¹, Man-Wook Seo¹

¹Department of Neurology, Chonbuk National University Hospital , Jeonju, Korea
²Department of Neurology, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, , Jeonju, Korea

Correspondence

Sun-Young Oh ,Tel: +82-63-250-1896, Fax: +82-63-251-9363, Email: ohsun@jbnu.ac.kr

Received: April 24, 2017; Accepted: June 2, 2017. Published online: June 2, 2017.

ABSTRACT

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is a neurological disorder induced by a dietary vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency. It is characterized by encephalopathy, gait ataxia, and some variant of oculomotor dysfunction which are the classic triad of WE. However, a complicating factor of WE identification may not be associated with the classical clinical triad in up to 90% of patients. In recent years, a loss of the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is being reported as the major underdiagnosed symptoms in WE. In this retrospective single center study, we describe four cases of WE presented mainly impaired horizontal VOR in addition to the classical clinical presentations, and imaging and neurotological laboratory findings were described.

Keywords: Wernicke’s encephalopathy; Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR); ataxia; dizziness