[A case of bilateral cerebellar peduncle infarction with bilateral hearing impairment of a sudden onset].

We reported a patient with bilateral cerebellar peduncle infarcts who had an abrupt onset of bilateral hearing loss. A hypertensive 56-year-old man suddenly experienced bilateral hearing loss without other accompanying neurological deficits. He was hospitalized and treated for "idiopathic deafness". In addition, dysarthria and ataxic gait appeared two days later and he was transferred to our hospital. On neurological examination, the patient presented with diplopia, neurosensory hearing loss (approximately 70 dB) ataxic dysarthria, bilateral cerebellar ataxia and bilateral Babinski's signs. Auditory brain stem evoked response demonstrated prolonged delay of interpeak latency between waves III-IV. CT and MRI revealed fresh ischemic lesions symmetrically located at the middle cerebellar peduncles and cerebellar medullary body. Cerebral angiography showed total occlusion of the left vertebral artery and a stenotic right vertebral artery at the ostium of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. We postulated that hearing impairment in this patient resulted from transient ischemia of the bilateral auditory tract in the brain stem or the peripheral cochlear system, but the definitive cause of the transient hearing loss remains undetermined. Concomitant appearance of a symmetrical infarction at the cerebellar peduncles is rare. We suggest that a circulation defect involving a multivascular system, which resulted in "border zone infarction" occurred at these regions.