Postinfectious Acute Cerebellar Syndromes in Children: A Nationally Ascertained Case Series From Australia 2013-2018

Postinfectious acute cerebellar syndromes show a wide spectrum of acute severity and can occur with acute febrile illness or vaccine receipt. Varicella has historically been the most common cause, associated with up to 25% of cases in large cohorts. This study aimed to describe the spectrum of syndromes in a setting with high varicella vaccine coverage.

Data were collected on children initially identified as "suspected encephalitis" subsequently designated "not-encephalitis" at participating children's hospitals in the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network, Australia, as part of the Acute Childhood Encephalitis study. A comprehensive descriptive analysis was undertaken on prospectively identified, national series of children with postinfectious acute cerebellar syndromes from 2013 to 2018. Cases were classified using a previously validated severity score, and the outcome was assessed at 12 months using the Liverpool Outcome Scale score.

A total of 20 cases (65% were vaccinated for varicella) were included, of which 70% were subcategorized as acute cerebellar ataxia (ACA), 20% acute cerebellitis (AC), and 10% acute fulminant cerebellitis (AFC). An acute febrile illness was noted in 55% and none were related to varicella or were temporally related to varicella vaccination or other childhood vaccines. A subset (total of 7 children) followed up at 12 months all showed reduced Liverpool Outcome Scale scores.

The study provides an overall description of this uncommon spectrum of neurologic syndromes and shows the infrequency of varicella zoster virus as a cause in a vaccinated population.