Introduction: Wernicke encephalopathy is a clinical diagnosis that requires a high degree of clinical suspicion to recognize. We report a case of a pregnant patient developing Wernicke encephalopathy in the setting of severe hyperemesis gravidarum.
\nCase Report: The patient was a 22-year-old female 13 weeks pregnant presenting to the emergency department (ED) with neurological deficits after several weeks of hyperemesis gravidarum requiring hospitalization. Exam and workup ultimately revealed the diagnosis of Wernicke encephalopathy. Her symptoms improved after administration of thiamine.
\nConclusion: Wernicke encephalopathy is a consequence of thiamine deficiency, commonly seen in patients with alcohol use disorder but also with other causes of nutritional deficiency, such as hyperemesis gravidarum. Wernicke encephalopathy is a clinical diagnosis that requires a high degree of suspicion and is, therefore, often missed in the ED setting. Treatment is supplemental thiamine and management of the root cause for nutritional deficiency.
","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"Wernicke"},{"word":"hyperemesis"},{"word":"pregnancy"},{"word":"Thiamine"},{"word":"case report"}],"section":"Case Reports","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g80c4h4","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Beth","middle_name":"","last_name":"Kreutzer","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Missouri, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia, Missouri","department":""},{"first_name":"Blake","middle_name":"","last_name":"Buehrer","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Missouri, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia, Missouri","department":""},{"first_name":"Phillip","middle_name":"","last_name":"Rohde","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Missouri, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia, Missouri","department":""},{"first_name":"Andrew","middle_name":"","last_name":"Pelikan","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Missouri, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia, Missouri","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2024-03-26T01:31:14.114000Z","date_accepted":"2024-07-25T09:14:13.523000Z","date_published":"2024-09-29T16:57:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uciem_cpcem/article/20522/galley/30159/download/"}]}