Clinical Case of Atypical Botulism with Pseudointernuclear Ophthalmoplegia Syndrome

Botulism is a rare cause of bulbar and oculomotor syndromes. A late diagnosis and, therefore, late initiation of specific therapy may lead to multiple life-threatening complications. Epidemiological history and clinical findings are key to the correct diagnosis, but if these data are not available due to atypical clinical findings, botulism identification is challenging.

In our clinical case, a 31-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with double vision, impaired eye movements, and difficulty swallowing rapidly developing for 2 days. Ocular motility dysfunction included disturbed conjugate eye movements. In young patients, this is most often caused by demyelinating disease with medial (posterior) longitudinal fasciculus damage and symmetrical bilateral ptosis. The patient denied eating foods that could cause botulism and did not have any gastrointestinal symptoms. Differential diagnoses included demyelinating disease onset and Miller–Fisher syndrome. The next morning, completely identical clinical signs appeared in the patient’s mother who had eaten canned mushrooms, so botulism was suspected. Over the next few hours, despite the administration of anti-botulinum serum, acute respiratory failure developed, and the patient was placed on a ventilator for 28 days. The patient and his mother were discharged in a satisfactory condition, and their symptoms completely resolved within a few months. The diagnosis of botulism was confirmed by toxicological examination.