Rasmussen’s Encephalitis: A Case Report

We report a case of Rasmussen’s Encephalitis. It is a rare, chronic inflammatory neurological disease of unknown origin that usually affects only one hemisphere of the brain. It is common in children under the age of 10 with average age at disease onset around 6 years but uncommon in adults, adult variant that accounts for about 10% of the cases only. Rasmussen’s Encephalitis is characterized by intractable severe seizures, loss of motor skills and speech, paralysis on one side of the body (dysfunctions associated with the affected hemisphere). Our case is a 21 years old female, presented to emergency department JMPC Karachi with complaint of intractable severe seizures, progressive hemiparesis and deteriorated cognition followed by an episode of encephalitis. Her course of illness was focal seizures and right-sided weakness (hemiparesis) for 5 months. In addition to classical clinical presentation of Rasmussen’s Encephalitis, MRI Brain showed hemispheric atrophy of one cerebral hemisphere and old gliotic changes that further supports diagnosis of Rasmussen’s Encephalitis.