title: Kinesigenic choreoathetosis due to brain injury.
abstract: This uncommon paroxysmal movement disorder featuring attacks of dystonic spasm with athetoid posturing is usually of idiopathic nature, often familial and starting in childhood. There are a few reported examples due to cerebral pathology, and only four previous cases due to brain trauma. We report here a 21 year old man with left-sided motor spasms, choreoathetoid in type, which were clearly caused by a right frontal penetrating injury with contusion and haemorrhage. The attacks were relieved by phenytoin therapy. In this case, it seems that the post-traumatic paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis may be a form of reflex epilepsy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001264:Athetosis / Q000209:etiology*; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000150:complications; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications; D002819:Chorea / Q000209:etiology*; D004834:Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed