Sudden Onset Altered Sensorium: Artery of Percheron Infarct

Acute onset Altered mental status is a common but clinically challenging emergency due to numerous possibilities with little clinical window and time to treat. The numerous causes include stroke, encephalitis, organ dysfunction, metabolic, endocrine and intoxication. Amongst the vascular causes, one rare but peculiar cause being artery of percheron infarct. Blood supply to the thalamus and brainstem have various anatomic variations. Artery of Percheron is one such variation in which a single arterial trunk arises from proximal segment of one of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) and bifurcates to supply bilateral paramedian thalami. Occlusion of this artery, although uncommon results in characteristics pattern of symmetric infarction in bilateral medial thalami with or without mesencephalic infarction. We here describe a case of a gentleman who presented with sudden onset altered mental status and skew deviation. After improvement in sensorium characteristic vertical gaze palsy was noted with subtle confusion which recovered. MRI brain revealed characteristic Para median bithalamic infarcts with normal intracranial angiogram. Patient showed a slow and incomplete clinical recovery to conservative management.

Author(s):

Tushar Premraj Raut, Gaurav Baheti, Anupa Hinduja, Prashant Makhija, Khursheed Ansari and Vivek Sharma

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