Movement Disorder Emergencies

Prominent neurologists and movement disorders experts from around the world logically and systematically review the major movement disorder emergencies, instructing the reader on how optimally to recognize and manage these problems. The authors comprehensively cover a broad range of disorders, including acute dystonic reactions, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, startle syndromes, and tic emergencies, and stress the importance of certain obvious diagnoses such as Wilson's disease, dopa-responsive dystonia, and Whipple's disease, in which delayed diagnosis in less emergent situations can lead to slowly evolving and often irreversible neurologic damage with tragic consequences. Patient vignettes at the beginning of each chapter focus the reader's attention and highlight the urgency of the problem. Since astute clinical diagnosis of many movement disorders is still largely dependent on visual pattern recognition in the clinic, an accompanying CD-ROM illustrates virtually all of the movement disorders described in the text.

Although patients with movement disorders nearly always present as outpatients, there are certain situations in which patients may present to the emergency room or in the hospital with emergencies. In Movement Disorder Emergencies: Diagnosis and Treatment, prominent neurologists and movement disorder experts from around the world logically and systematically review the major movement disorder emergencies, instructing the reader on how optimally to recognize and manage these problems. The authors comprehensively cover a broad range of disorders, including acute dystonic reactions, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, startle syndromes, and tic emergencies, and stress the importance of certain obvious diagnoses such as Wilson's disease, dopa-responsive dystonia, and Whipple's disease, in which delayed diagnosis in less emergent situations can lead to slowly evolving and often irreversible neurological damage with tragic consequences. The chapters are practical in emphasizing the keys to diagnosis and treatment, but do not skimp on the underlying science, thereby providing in one reference source what is critical to know. Patient vignettes at the beginning of each chapter focus the reader's attention and highlight the urgency of the problem. Practical and patient-based, Movement Disorder Emergencies: Diagnosis and Treatment offers neurologists and emergency medical personnel an indispensable guide to successfully diagnosing and treating these important but previously unexplored areas of neurological disorders.