Cephalic tetanus presenting as acute vertigo with bilateral vestibulopathy

Cephalic tetanus is a rare form of tetanus, defined by paralysis of more than one cranial nerve. The seventh cranial nerve is the most frequently involved. We report a 58-year-old man with cephalic tetanus and bilateral vestibulopathy. The patient's initial symptoms were rotatory vertigo and hypertension. He then developed trismus and cranial nerve palsies of the fifth and seventh nerves. The caloric test and vestibular evoked mygenic potentials in response to air-conducted clicks revealed absent responses on both sides, although audiometry and auditory brainstem responses were normal in both ears. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of involvement of the eighth cranial nerve in cephalic tetanus.