Why the study?
What is the incidence and presentation of neurological involvement in patients hospitalized with infectious mononucleosis?
What is the incidence and presentation of neurological involvement in patients hospitalized with infectious mononucleosis?
Neurological signs and symptoms can be the major or heralding features of infectious mononucleosis, occurring in 5.5% of hospitalized patients, even in the absence of classic symptoms like pharyngitis or adenopathy.
Neurological complications warrant consideration in mononucleosis differentials; this case series leaves open broader incidence estimates and management implications.
Fifteen patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) had neurological signs and symptoms as the major and/or heralding features of the illness. In six, the only detectable clinical manifestations were neurological. The incidence of objective neurological involvement among 144 patients hospitalized with IM was 5.5%. Infectious mononucleosis should be one of the etiological considerations in children and young adults presenting with short histories and showing neurological deficits reflecting involvement of almost any part of the nervous system. Pharyngitis, adenopathy, splenomegaly, etc, need not be present.
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Allen Silverstein (1972) studied this question.
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