[Refractory epilepsy status in Reye's syndrome in an adult. A case report]

Reye s syndrome (RS) is a potentially fatal disease described in 1963 by Reye, Morgan and Baral as an acute encephalopathy associated with a lipid degeneration of the liver. It affects children of all ages, with a peak incidence between 5 and 15 years old, but on rare occasions it can also affect adults. Its aetiology is not known, but is has been linked with viral infections and with the ingestion of salicylates. Its occurrence in adults is not at all frequent and only 27 cases have been recorded in the literature.

We report the case of a 33 year old primiparous patient who, during lactation, began suffering from epilepsy and a lowered level consciousness in the course of an infection of the pharynx and tonsils, and died on the 12th day after admission to the ICU. Anamnesis revealed she had taken ASA for the first time in her life, which guided diagnosis, and this was confirmed post mortem in the anatomopathological examination.

RS in adults occurs only rarely but should be a part of the differentiating diagnosis of any encephalopathy of unknown origin and especially of the epileptic status of an adult, above all if there is a history of ingestion of salicylates, previous viral infection and vomiting.