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Wernicke-Korsakoff encephalopathy.

Pearce JM

Emeritus Consultant Neurologist, Department of Neurology, Hull Royal Infirmary and Hull York Medical School, Hull, UK.

Wernicke described the clinical features of three patients, including two alcoholics, suffering from confusion, ataxia and ophthalmoplegia in whom pathologically he found 'polioencephalitis haemorrhagica superioris'. Korsakoff's doctoral thesis related similar findings but expanded the confabulation and amnesic elements, relating them to alcoholism. This paper, which summarises the salient aspects of the syndrome, discusses their work and shows important earlier descriptions by James Jackson, (1822) Samuel Wilks (1868) and Charles Gayet (1875).

Published 18 December 2007 in Eur Neurol, 59(1): 101-4.
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