Wallenberg syndrome

(Adolf Wallenberg, 1862 - 1949, German physician), a specific clinical picture characterized by an ipsilateral Horner's syndrome and loss of pain and temperature sensation over the face on the same side, associated with contralateral loss of pain and temperature sensation in the body. Vertigo, nausea and vomiting are usually also present, as well as limb ataxia on the side of the lesion. The ninth and tenth cranial nerves may be affected causing hiccup and swallowing difficulties.

The lesion is, in the majority of cases, due to a dorsolateral medullary infarction that may occur with posterior inferior cerebellar artery thrombosis but also with vertebral artery thrombosis or dissection. MR may show a focal hyperintensity in the posterolateral portion of the affected medulla.

GS