Case Report
Babinski-Nageotte Syndrome Diagnosed in Postpartum Period
Serdar Oruç,
1
Hayri DemirbaG,
1
Abdullah Güzel,
1
Mehtap Beker Acay,
2
and Mehmet Yaman
1
1
Department of Neurology, Afyon Kocatepe University School of Medicine, 03200 Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
2
Department of Radiology, Afyon Kocatepe University School of Medicine, 03200 Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
Correspondence should be addressed to Serdar Oruc ¸; drserdaroruc@gmail.com
Received 19 October 2015; Revised 13 January 2016; Accepted 26 January 2016
Academic Editor: Chin-Chang Huang
Copyright © 2016 Serdar Oruc ¸ et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Babinski-Nageotte Syndrome (BNS) is one of the brainstem syndromes characterized by muscle weakness in the opposite half of
the body with classic Wallenberg fndings. According to our literature survey, only a few cases have been reported and none of them
was in the postpartum period. We report a case of a typical BNS in a postpartum woman with an ischemic lesion in the medulla
oblongata shown on magnetic resonance imaging.
1. Introduction
Firstly diagnosed in 1902, Babinski-Nageotte Syndrome
(BNS) is one of the brainstem syndromes characterized by
medulla oblongata ischemia [1]. In BNS, which has been
described in very few cases in the literature, lateral medullary
syndrome symptoms as well as contralateral motor defcit
have been observed. Here, we have reported a case diagnosed
with BNS which was developed on the 10th day of the
postpartum period.
2. Case Report
A 30-year-old woman was evaluated with complaints of
dysarthria, dysphagia, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and weak-
ness of lef arm and leg. According to her medical history,
there was sudden development of dizziness, nausea, and vom-
iting symptoms one hour before her admission to the hospital
and later complaints of dysphagia, dysarthria, and weakness
of lef arm and leg were added to her presenting complaints.
Tere was no background or family history of the patient with
the exception that she had given birth by Caesarean section,
10 days before, and was diagnosed with preeclampsia in the
33rd week of her pregnancy. In her frst evaluation, the patient
was in stuporous state and she had dysarthric speech. During
examination of her eye movements, vertical and horizontal
nystagmus were observed. Tere was fattening of lef sided
nasolabial sulcus with abnormal gag refex observed during
cranial nerve examination. In the motor system examination,
the lef upper and lower extremity muscle power were 3/5
level and her Babinski refex was found to be an exten-
sor response on the lef side. During the sensory system
examination, pain and thermal senses of the patient were
decreased on the lef side of the body and cerebellar tests were
abnormal on the right side. Evaluation of the cranial MRI
screening of the patient with the misdoubt of cerebrovascular
disease showed results that were consistent with difusion
restriction which was thought to be acute infarct extending to
inferior cerebellar peduncle with involvement of right sided
posterolateral medulla oblongata (Figure 1). In magnetic
resonance angiography (MRA), stenosis was seen in the distal
segment of right vertebral artery (Figure 2).
In addition to lateral medullary syndrome symptoms,
there was also contralateral muscle weakness observed in the
patient. Terefore, we reached a conclusion that the patient
had BNS and medical treatment was initiated accordingly.
Te patient was hospitalized for 15 days in our clinic. At the
end of the ffeenth day her neurological symptoms improved
except ataxia and dysarthria.
3. Discussion
Babinski-Nageotte Syndrome (BNS) is one of the brainstem
syndromes characterized by muscle weakness in the opposite
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Neurological Medicine
Volume 2016, Article ID 5206430, 2 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5206430