Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery

Idiopathic Abducens Nerve Palsy

Abstract

Dr. Krishnendu Choudhury, Dr. Sushanta Bhanja, Dr. B. Vamshi Krishna, Dr. Joydeep Das, Dr. N. Jeevan Naik

Sixth cranial nerve palsy causes paralysis of lateral rectus muscle leading to horizontal diplopia on lateral gaze and inability to abduct the eye. Such palsy may be secondary to trauma, infection, stroke in pons, Wernicke encephalopathy, raised intracranial tension from meningitis, encephalitis, or it may be idiopathic or benign when no discernible cause can be found after detailed investigation, and in such cases, spontaneous recovery of symptoms usually occurs with resolution of palsy in a few weeks. We depict a patient with acute onset abducens palsy with diplopia without any identifiable cause which recovered spontaneously within 4 weeks.