A Case Report on Wallenberg Syndrome

Wallenberg syndrome or lateral medullary syndrome was first described in1895 by Gaspan Viessux [1]. Adolf Wallenberg, a German physician and neuroanatomist who gave an accurate description of the pathology of the syndrome in 1901 after an autopsy of the specimen [2]. The wallenberg syndrome is a rare syndrome involving the part of medulla oblongata with consequent cross loss of pain and temperature sensation in the ipsilateral orofacial region and counter-lateral body [3]. The clinical symptoms and signs are dysphagia, slurred speech, ataxia, facial pain, vertigo, nystagmus, diplopia, possibly palatal myoclonus. The patients experience absence of pain in the ipsilateral side of the face as well as absence of corneal reflex due to damage to the spinal trigeminal nucleus. The patient will be developing experience nystagmus and vertigo leading to dysphagia. The strokes in one of the two arteries in the brain stem lead to Wallenberg syndrome [4].