Therapeutic delirium in Reye's syndrome
Henry Nadler M.D.1
1 Chief of Staff, Children's Memorial Hospital Given Research Professor and Chairman, Northwestern University Medical School Chicago, Illinois
During the past decade, Reye's syndrome has become a widely recognized clinical and pathologic entity. The clinical manifestations are remarkably uniform. The patient, most frequently between 4 and 15 years of age, develops persistent vomiting within a week usually following a rather mild upper respiratory tract illness, with or without fever. The patient may develop signs of acute encephalopathy including aggressive combative behavior, hallucinations, decreasing responsiveness to external stimuli, loss of deep tendon reflexes, decorticate or decerebrate posturing, and finally loss of brain-stem function and death. Other clinical findings frequently observed include hyperventilation, widely dilated pupils which respond only to strong light, and mild hepatomegaly.
