Para/post infectious recovering encephalitis with localized basal ganglia involvement.

Neurological dysfunction in children associated with bilateral hypodense lesions of the basal ganglia is seen in disorders like Huntington's chorea, Wilson's disease, Hallervorden Spatz syndrome, Leigh's disease, infantile striatal necrosis, hypoxia, ischemia and various intoxications(l). Goutieres and Aicardi described in 1982 a new neuroradiological syndrome characterized by a rapid clinical onset of striatal symptoms following an infectious illness, associated with similar hypodense basal ganglia lesions, but with a far better outcome than seen with the conditions mentioned above(2). Since then very few cases of this new disorder have been reported(3-6). We describe a series of 10 patients seen by us over the last 3 years who fit into the clinical and imaging features of this syndrome.