[Tropical ataxia. Clinical and nutritional study]

The authors report on 21 cases of tropical neuropathy with simple or prevailing ataxia. They explicit the semiologic characteristics of this pattern. The difficulties of the discriminating diagnostic in the tropics are mentioned. Eleven among these patients have been submitted to a nutritional analysis, which shows a global deficiency of the contribution and strangely a lipid deficiency, the responsibility of which is debated.