Rhombencephalitis possibly caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil: MD, PhD, Department of Neurology.; MD, Department of Neurology. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a frequent cause of respiratory infection in humans, especially schoolchildren, adolescents and young adults, accounting for about 20% of cases of pneumonia in this age group. However, little is known about its extrapulmonary manifestations, with the central nervous system (CNS) being the most common extrapulmonary site which can be affected during any phase of the disease. About 1 to 10% of patients with pneumonia caused by M. pneumoniae require hospitalization due to some neurological complication related to this infection, and M. pneumoniae is possibly one of the leading causes of encephalitis in older children and adolescents. We report here the case of an adolescent girl with an uncommon manifestation of neurological complications characterized by the involvement of the brainstem and cerebellum likely caused by the M. pneumoniae in the absence of atypical pneumonia.