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BackgroundAcute cerebellitis (AC) and acute cerebellar ataxia (ACA) are the principal causes of acute cerebellar dysfunction in childhood. Nevertheless. there is no accepted consensus regarding the best management of children with AC/ACA: the aim of the study is both to assess clinical, neuroimaging and electrophysiologic features of children with AC/ACA and to evaluate the correlation between clinical parameters, therapy and outcome.MethodsA multicentric retrospective study was conducted on children ≤ 18 years old admitted to 12 Italian paediatric hospitals for AC/ACA from 01/01/2003 to 31/12/2013. A score based on both cerebellar and extracerebellar signs/symptoms was computed for each patient. One point was given for each sign/symptom reported. Severity was divided in three classes: low, moderate, severe.ResultsA total of 124 children were included in the study. Of these, 118 children received a final diagnosis of ACA and 6 of AC. The most characteristic finding of AC/ACA was a broad-based gait disturbance. Other common symptoms included balance disturbances, slurred speech, vomiting, headache and fever. Neurological sequelae were reported in 6 cases (5%) There was no correlation among symptoms, cerebrospinal fluid findings, clinical outcome. There was no correlation between clinical manifestations and clinical score on admission and length of hospital stay, sex, age and EEG findings with sequelae (P > 0.05).Children with pathological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) had a higher probability of having clinical sequelae.Treatment was decided independently case by case. Patients with a higher clinical score on admission had a higher probability of receiving intravenous steroids.ConclusionsWe confirmed the literature data about the benign course of AC/ACA in most cases but we also highlighted a considerable rate of patients with neurological sequelae (5%). Pathological MRI or CT findings at admission correlate to neurological sequelae. These findings suggest the indication to perform an instrumental evaluation in all patients with AC/ACA at admission to identify those at higher risk of neurological outcome. These patients may benefit from a more aggressive therapeutic strategy and should have a closer follow-up. Randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these observations. The ultimate goal of these studies could be to develop a standardized protocol on AC/ACA. The MRI/CT data, associated with the clinical manifestations, may allow us to define the class risk of patients for a neurological outcome.

BackgroundAcute cerebellitis (AC) is the most common neurological complication of varicella. Nevertheless, it has been scarcely studied. The objective of this study were to asses the occurrence of AC among children hospitalized for varicella and to analyze its specific clinical picture and outcome.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children admitted to the hospital for varicella between 1st October 2003 and 1st June 2013 and we compared our results with literature. Children were all unvaccinated for varicella.ResultsIn our case series, AC was found out in 48 out of 457 patients (10.5%). The highest frequency of AC was observed in children from 1 to 5 years of age (60.9%). The most characteristic symptom of AC was a broad-based gait disturbance that progressed gradually over the course of a few days (95.8%). Other common symptoms included slurred speech (37.5%), vomiting (31.25%), headache (29.16%), dysmetry (25%) and tremor (22.91%). After a long hospitalization (median of 11 days), all but one children were dismissed without invalidating sequelae.ConclusionsData from this study may help to better address the problem of varicella cerebellar complications in hospitalized children and to monitor changes over time caused by an increase in vaccination coverage.