Abducens Nerve Palsy In Gestational Hypertension: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Isolated sixth nerve palsy as the first manifestation of preeclampsia

Preeclampsia constitutes one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. Preeclampsia-related neurological disorders are well-established and associated with a broad spectrum of manifestations, including headaches, visual symptoms like blurred vision, photopsia, field defects, and other major clinical events. However, cranial nerve disorders are rare in preeclampsia, which is inadequately researched. Here, we present a 26-year-old primigravida woman with an isolated abducens nerve palsy as the first sign of preeclampsia at 35 weeks of gestation.

The diagnostic dilemma of a pregnant woman presenting with an isolated sixth nerve palsy: A case report

Pregnant women presenting with isolated cranial palsies are uncommon. Isolated sixth nerve (abducens nerve) palsy can occur for a variety of reasons and neuroimaging is often performed to identify an underlying cause. We report a case of a woman in her third pregnancy with preeclampsia who presented with an isolated sixth nerve palsy. The diagnosis of aseptic cavernous sinus thrombosis was made and she subsequently made a full recovery.

Epidemiology of neurologic disease in pregnancy

Many neurologic diseases in women are influenced by the physiologic and hormonal changes of pregnancy, and pregnancy itself poses challenges in both treatment and evaluation of these conditions. Some diseases, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, have a high enough prevalence in the young female population to support robust epidemiologic data while many other neurologic diseases, such as specific myopathies and muscular dystrophies, have a low prevalence, with data limited to case reports and small case series. This chapter features epidemiologic information regarding a breadth of neurologic conditions, including stroke, epilepsy, demyelinating disease, peripheral neuropathies, migraine, sleep-disordered breathing, and meningioma, in women in the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum stages.