Neuroleptic malignant syndrome in a case of extra-pontine myelinolysis: On the horns of dilemma

Abstract

Osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) lead to severe neurological sequalae. Though currently thought to be different syndromes, literature suggests a relation between the two. We present the case of a 45-year-old male who was found to have chronic severe hyponatremia and underwent rapid correction of sodium and developed parkinsonism features. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed extrapontine myelinolysis (a type of ODS). The patient received haloperidol for agitated behavior and developed new features of rigidity, fever, tachycardia and elevated creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels and thus neuroleptic malignant syndrome was suspected to overlap with ODS. We report this case highlighting the difficulty in differentiating the between ODS and NMS and their relationship.