[A ten-year old boy with progressive neurologic outcome].
BACKGROUND
Rasmussen's encephalitis is a rare chronic inflammatory disease with unknown etiology. Patients with this condition have symptoms of intractable partial epilepsy, often with epilepsia partialis continua combined with a progressive hemiparesis.


METHODS
The history of a Norwegian ten-year old boy with Rasmussen's encephalitis is described.


CONCLUSIONS
The patient had clinical symptoms of Rasmussen's encephalitis. He had intractable partial epilepsy including epilepsia partialis continua. Cerebral MRI showed unilateral right-sided cerebral atrophy and foci of increased signal intensity in cortical grey and subcortical white matter. The boy was operated with right-sided hemispherectomy and is postoperatively seizure free. To our knowledge, this is the first published Norwegian child with Rasmussen's encephalitis. The disorder may be underdiagnosed in Norway. It is important to recognise this disease as early as possible.
Barneklinikken, Rikshospitalet, 0027 Oslo. inger.sandvig@rikshospitalet.no
Inger
I
Sandvig
Bjørn
B
Tennøe
Ann-Sofie
AS
Eriksson
D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018450:Disease Progression; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D038421:Hemispherectomy; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male