MENINGOENCEPHALITIS IN INFECTIOUS MONONUCLEOSIS

In recent years an ever-increasing number of case reports1have directed clinical attention to neurological involvement in infectious mononucleosis. This involvement has been shown to be as diffuse and variable as the classically protean character of the systemic manifestations of the disease. The use of steroids in the treatment of infectious mononucleosis has gained general acceptance since the first description by Doran and Weisberger.2Fiese and co-workers1fhave reported a case of virus encephalomyelitis (Guillain-Barré syndrome) complicating infectious mononucleosis in which there was recovery coincident with the administration of cortisone. A review of the literature fails to reveal any other cases with significant neurological involvement treated in this fashion. The present report deals with a case of diffuse meningoencephalitis in which the patient responded dramatically after the institution of steriod therapy. A 19-year-old hospital corpsman was well until Aug. 23, 1955, at which time he noted the