[Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis: 2 pediatric cases]

The term "paraneoplastic neurologic disorders" refers to a group of syndromes mediated by immune responses triggered by tumors that express neuronal proteins or by immunological disturbances caused by the tumor. In most cases, limbic encephalitis is a disorder of adulthood, particularly in association with small-cell lung cancer or a testicular germ-cell tumor. The clinical picture of this disorder includes anxiety, depression, confusion, delirium, hallucinations, short-term memory loss and sometimes seizures. We report on 2 new pediatric cases from a single hospital: in the first case, limbic encephalitis revealed Hodgkin lymphoma; it heralded meningeal relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the other. Despite its extreme rarity, this syndrome is a possible diagnosis in childhood.