aetiology

Last reviewed 01/2018

The aetiology of cerebellar disease is highly diverse:

Developmental causes:

  • agenesis
  • von Hippel-Lindau disease
  • Arnold Chiari malformations
  • Dandy Walker malformation

Demyelinating causes:

  • multiple sclerosis

Degenerative causes:

  • Friedreich's ataxia
  • Louis Barr syndrome - ataxia telangiectasia

Infectious causes:

  • abscess formation
  • acute cerebellaritis
  • acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
  • some variants of Guillain Barre syndrome

Neoplastic causes:

  • astrocytoma, medulloblastoma, haemangioblastoma
  • metastasis

Metabolic causes:

  • myxoedema
  • alcohol / vitamin B1 deficiency

Vascular causes:

  • cerebellar haemorrhage
  • cerebellar infarction

Drug causes:

  • anticonvulsants - phenytoin
  • other sedatives - antipsychotics, benzodiazepines
  • alcohol