Referral of a Patient With Ocular Symptoms to the Stroke Clinic: Not Always the Usual Suspect!

A 77-year-old male attended the stroke clinic as a delayed presentation of a stroke and was initially managed as an occipital stroke. He presented with a gradual decline in visual acuity with an initial suspicion of field deficit over a period of three to four months. He underwent extensive tests including imaging for a confirmatory diagnosis. He had a rapid deterioration of his vision, function, and cognition over a few weeks resulting eventually in death. The case highlights a rare variant of sporadic Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (sCJD), the Heidenhain Variant (HV-CJD). CJD is the commonest of human prion diseases. In HV-CJD, pathologic prions display demyelinating neurotropism for the occipital lobes resulting in visual changes and hallucinations.

Pilomatrixoma of the head and neck: Typical presentation of a rare lesion.

Pilomatrixomas are benign tumours of primitive hair follicles, usually presenting as painless lumps in the head and neck region in children. As they are uncommon, they are often misdiagnosed clinically. We discuss a case of a five-year-old boy presenting with a five-month history of a pre-auricular lump. The initial clinical differential diagnosis was of a dermoid or a branchial cleft cyst. However, on ultrasonography the lesion was typical of a pilomatrixoma. The imaging literature is reviewed to illustrate the sonographic appearances of pilomatrixomas.

Cervical Subcutaneous Emphysema following Total Laryngectomy: An Unusual Complication of Nasogastric Intubation.

The nasogastric tube remains an important route of enteral feeding in the early postoperative period following total laryngectomy. Its insertion, however, is not without any risks of complications. In this article, we report an unusual case of inadvertent nasopharyngeal perforation secondary to intraoperative nasogastric tube insertion presenting as unilateral cervical subcutaneous emphysema in a patient who underwent total laryngectomy.

A patient with an acute confusional state.

A 49-year-old male presented in an acutely confused state. His examination and basic blood tests were unremarkable. He was started on intravenous aciclovir and an MRI brain scan showed changes consistent with limbic encephalitis. Serum antibodies including para-neoplastic auto-antibodies and cerebrospinal fluid studies were arranged along with a full body CT scan to look for malignancy. All antibody tests returned negative and the CT scan ruled out the presence of malignancy. The patient improved following treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin and was discharged. Follow-up imaging showed significant radiological improvement. He has been able to return to work and repeat CT scans have failed to find evidence of malignancy. A rare and treatable cause for his illness was found. It is worth considering limbic encephalitis when facing a confused patient especially in the young and middle-aged population.

Successful treatment of nasolacrimal duct obstruction secondary to fibrous dysplasia by external dacryocystorhinostomy with mitomycin C.

A 60-year-old woman developed polyostotic fibrous dysplasia involving the right zygomatic and maxillary bones, which led to swelling along the right side of her nose that was associated with constant epiphora. A sac washout revealed a blocked right nasolacrimal duct, which was confirmed by CT dacryocystography. CT also showed signs of fibrous dysplasia in the maxillary and zygomatic bones in the form of bony expansion and ground-glass bone density. The patient underwent external dacryocystorhinostomy with mitomycin C and O'Donoghue tube insertion. Bone punched out while fashioning the bony nasal ostium was subjected to histopathologic examination, which confirmed the diagnosis of fibrous dysplasia. The O'Donoghue tubes were removed 8 weeks later. At 15 months postoperatively, the dacryocystorhinostomy was patent and the patient was completely relieved of her symptoms.