Wernicke's Encephalopathy with Intracranial Hemorrhage

Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is a neurological disorder associated with thiamine deficiency (1). Patients may present with a classic triad of symptoms consisting of altered mental status, ataxia, and ocular dysfunction. Diagnosis can be difficult as clinical presentation is not typical in certain cases. WE is curable if thiamine is administered parenterally early in the course of the disease, but the mortality rate of WE remains 10-20% due to misdiagnosis (2). Although histopathologic examination usually demonstrates pin-point hemorrhages in affected brain parenchyma such as mammillary bodies, the periventricular regions of third and fourth ventricles and the aqueduct (3), secondary hemorrhage is a rare but serious complication of WE (4). We experienced a rare case of intracranial hemorrhage related to WE in a 56-year-old male patient with malnourishment.