A case of cerebellar infarction due to occlusion of the perimedullary segment of the PICA having only vertigo, nausea, vomiting and nystagmus

Abstract

A 59-year-old male patient was described who, despite major cerebellar infarction due to occlusion of the perimedullary segment of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA), had only vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and nystagmus without any other neurological symptoms and who achieved a recovery in 4 days. It has been found that some patients with cerebellar infarction show mainly vertigo, nausea and gait disterbance without neocerebellar syndrome and present a clinical picture very similar to labyrinthine disorders. Beside the case described in this paper, only two mild cases with even no gait disturbance have been reported in the literature. Responsible lesions were found in the cerebellar PICA area in all these cases. It is therefore necessary to suspect cerebellar infarction in the PICA area in treating vertigo patients with no cerebellar symptom.