Wernicke's encephalopathy in a patient with unresectable gastric carcinoma and literature review

Abstract

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is a disease classically associated with nutrition deficiency. It is characterized by typical symptoms like confusion, ataxia and ophthalmoparesis, and developes due to thiamine deficieny in alcoholic patients. Recently, it has been shown that WE could ocur in patients with gastric carcinoma without a history of alcohol use. in this paper, we have made some suggestions about early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of WE by discussing the development of WE in a patient with unresectable gastric carcinoma, who had been inpatient for a long time and given radiotherapy and chemotherapy.