From the Department of Surgical Intensive Care, Division of Anaesthesiology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
Published: August 2022
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Lance-Adams syndrome (chronic post-hypoxic myoclonus) is a rare syndrome occurring in patients after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Awareness of this condition is important to distinguish it from myoclonic status epilepticus, which is a poor prognostic sign. We present the case of a 32-year-old woman who developed Lance-Adams syndrome after an episode of hypoxic cardiac arrest from severe pneumonia. Brain computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and an electroencephalogram were used to rule out other causes of myoclonus. In this report, we discuss the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of patients with Lance-Adams syndrome.
Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA; Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA. Electronic address:
Objective: To report a novel phenotype of negative myoclonus in acute post-anoxic brain injury (PABI).
Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 18-channel video-EEG and surface-EMG (sEMG) recordings of three patients with PABI. sEMG electrodes were placed on the neck, bulbar and arm muscles.
From the Paris Brain Institute (G.V., E.A., P.B., V.N.), ICM, Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne University; AP-HP (G.V., V.N.), EEG Unit, Department of Neurophysiology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital; AP-HP (E.A.), Neurophysiology of Movement Disorders Unit, Department of Neurophysiology, Saint-Antoine and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital; AP-HP (M.A.D.R.Q., V.N.), Epilepsy Unit, Department of Neurology, Reference Center of Rare Epilepsies, ERN-EpiCare, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital; AP-HP (D.V.C., A.K.), Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, APHP Sorbonne University; Sorbonne University (A.K.), Inserm, CNRS, Laboratoire D'Imagerie Biomédicale, LIB, Paris, France.
Background And Objectives: Lance-Adams syndrome (LAS), or chronic posthypoxic myoclonus, is a long-term disabling neurologic disorder occurring in survivors of anoxia. The cortical or subcortical origin of this myoclonus is unclear. We aimed to identify the neuroanatomical origin of myoclonus in LAS.
From the Department of Neurology (J.C.v.Z.), University Medical Center Groningen; and Department of Neurology (M.B.), Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Objective: Lance-Adams syndrome is a rare and debilitating disorder characterized by successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation resulting in myoclonus activity. Alcohol withdrawal seizures from alcohol use disorder may further exacerbate Lance-Adams syndrome. We aim to present a case of Lance-Adams syndrome complicated by alcohol withdrawal seizures and successfully treated with a combination of valproate, clonazepam, and gabapentin.
Lance-Adams syndrome (LAS) is a rare clinical presentation of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury typically occurring in the setting of cardiac arrest. It is rare for it to be associated with respiratory failure. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic heralded a new cause of respiratory failure, and not much is known about the occurrence of Lance-Adams syndrome in the context of COVID-19 pneumonia.
