A 3-year-old girl with Wernicke's encephalopathy due to a severely unbalanced diet

Wernicke’s encephalopathy, an acute neuropsychiatric syndrome caused by thiamine (vitamin B 1 ) deficiency, is associated with serious clinical disease and can be fatal. It has rarely been reported in infants and children. We report a case of a 3-year-old girl with Wernicke’s encephalopathy. The patient’s diet had been severely unbalanced since the age of 2 years, and for about a month prior to admission to our hospital had consisted almost exclusively of polished white rice and noodles. Her clinical symptoms supported thiamine deficiency-related neuropathy. Brain MRI findings revealed abnormalities consistent with pediatric Wernicke’s encephalopathy with involvement of the putamen. The diagnosis prompted thiamine replacement therapy, to which the patient showed an excellent response.