Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis (BBE) is characterised by acute ophthalmoplegia and ataxia preceded by infection.1BBE rather than Miller Fisher syndrome is usually diagnosed for patients who show drowsiness and have brisk reflexes, extensor plantar responses, and long tract sensory disturbance. Bickerstaff and Cloake1 speculated that the aetiology of BBE is similar to that of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) because areflexia and CSF albuminocytological dissociation was detected in one of their three patients. Because prior infection is frequent in BBE, as in GBS, autoimmune mechanisms produced by microbial infections may function in its pathogenesis. A review of the literature in English turned up eight cases of BBE in which the pathogens of antecedent infection had been identified. The reported antecedent infections in BBE are herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, varicella zoster virus, measles virus, Salmonella typhi, andMycoplasma pneumoniae. We here describe a case of BBE subsequent to Campylobacter jejuni enteritis.

A 17 year old youth had fever and diarrhoea that cleared up over a period of 5 days. Eight days after the resolution of this illness, he experienced unsteady gait (day 1), and the next day he required assistance to walk and experienced vertigo. On day 3, he could no longer walk and vomited several times. He was apyrexic but drowsy. The pupils were normal and responded promptly to light. There was no limitation of ocular …