Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 16, 2023; 11(2): 434-440
Published online Jan 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i2.434
H7N9 avian influenza with first manifestation of occipital neuralgia: A case report
Jie Zhang
Jie Zhang, Department of Neurology, Neuromedical Center, Aviation General Hospital, Beijing 100012, China
Author contributions: Zhang J conducted data curation and project management, reviewed and analyzed data, supervised the entire study, wrote the manuscript, read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: The patient provided written informed consent to participate in this study.Written informed consent was obtained for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declare that she have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: All authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Zhang, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Neurology, Neuromedical Center, Aviation General Hospital, No. 3 Beiyuan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, China. drzhangjie361@126.com
Received: October 13, 2022
Peer-review started: October 13, 2022
First decision: November 25, 2022
Revised: December 8, 2022
Accepted: December 18, 2022
Article in press: December 18, 2022
Published online: January 16, 2023
Processing time: 91 Days and 5.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Most of the first symptoms of avian influenza are respiratory symptoms, and cases with occipital neuralgia as the first manifestation are rarely reported.

CASE SUMMARY

A middle-aged patient complaining of paroxysmal pain behind the ear was admitted to our hospital. The patient’s condition changed rapidly, and high fever, unexpected respiratory failure, and multiple organ failure developed rapidly. The patient was diagnosed with H7N9 avian influenza based on etiology.

CONCLUSION

We believe that the etiology of occipital neuralgia is complex and could be the earliest manifestation of severe diseases. The possibility of an infectious disease should be considered when occipital neuralgia is accompanied by fever. Avian influenza is one of these causative agents.

Keywords: Occipital neuralgia; Avian influenza; Respiratory; Infectious; Case report

Core Tip: Patients with avian influenza usually first show respiratory symptoms, and occipital neuralgia caused by avian influenza is very rare. We report a case of severe avian influenza pneumonia with occipital neuralgia as the first symptom.