Wernicke's encephalopathy in a patient with unresectable gastric carcinoma and literature review.

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is a disease classically associated with nutrition deficiency. It is characterized by typical symptoms like confusion, ataxia and ophthalmoparesis, and developes due to thiamine deficieny in alcoholic patients. Recently, it has been shown that WE could ocur in patients with gastric carcinoma without a history of alcohol use.