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Acute Generalized Weakness

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Neurologic Emergencies

Abstract

A 37-year-old male presents to your emergency department Saturday afternoon complaining of generalized weakness, a feeling of being wiped out, and no strength in his legs. It started the previous day at work, and by midday today, he knew something was wrong. His kids had been sick with a cold the last week, and he too just recovered from an upper respiratory infection a few days before that. He reports back pain as well. He took 800 mg of ibuprofen with minimal relief. On neurologic exam, he is fully awake and alert, without any change in level of consciousness. He has decreased power in both his upper and lower extremities. His deep tendon reflexes are difficult to detect. He does not have dysmetria or dysarthria. He states “I feel weak.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, FL, USA

    Latha Ganti M.D., M.S., M.B.A., F.A.C.E.P. & Vaibhav Rastogi M.D.

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  1. Latha Ganti M.D., M.S., M.B.A., F.A.C.E.P.
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  2. Vaibhav Rastogi M.D.
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Correspondence to Latha Ganti M.D., M.S., M.B.A., F.A.C.E.P. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Orlando, Florida, USA

    Latha Ganti

  2. Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Joshua N. Goldstein

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Ganti, L., Rastogi, V. (2018). Acute Generalized Weakness. In: Ganti, L., Goldstein, J. (eds) Neurologic Emergencies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64523-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64523-0_12

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