Todd’s Syndrome: An Arabic Single Case of Prolonged Motor Impairment Presentation with Neuropsychological Tests Validation

Abstract

This paper presents a rare case of postictal hemiplegia for a prolonged period. The patient has no brain abnormality of vascular nature or any evidence of abnormality on MRI and EEG, but he had a single GTC seizure two months ago. This is the first Arabic case report of prolonged Todd's syndrome. The patient has no psychological problems either. We tested the hypothesis that there is no motivation factor in his presentation. The patient was totally normal on cognitive neuropsychological tests and on two Symptoms Validity Tests (SVT). This is also the first time SVTs are used with Todd's syndrome, as far as we are aware.This rare case raises awareness and enhances our knowledge of clinical presentations, reducing the amount of diagnostic procedures and unnecessary therapies. It also helps clinicians to avoid 'psychologising' the clinical presentation as hysteria or psychogenic hemiplegia, in the absence of such evidence.