Acute cerebellar ataxia of childhood and optic neuritis with retrochiasmal involvement.

A case of a 4-year-old white girl affected with unilateral optic neuritis and acute cerebellar ataxia is presented. Visual evoked potentials (VEP) demonstrated prolonged latency of the right optic nerve as well as the left retrochiasmal pathways. This child had complete resolution of the cerebellar ataxia and the optic neuritis with return to normal of her VEP. This case is an example of a disease characterized by a single episode of multifocal involvement of the CNS differing from diffuse encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis.