Transient Global Amnesia Triggered by Cold Water Swimming: A Series of 9 Cases Presenting to a Hospital on the Coast of Ireland Within 5 Years.

Q3 Medicine
European journal of case reports in internal medicine Pub Date : 2025-03-10 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.12890/2025_005200
Colm Tuohy, Ginna Alexandra Polania Zuleta
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Transient global amnesia is a clinical syndrome characterized by sudden onset of anterograde amnesia, often accompanied by repetitive questioning, lasting up to 24 hours with complete resolution and no other neurological deficits. This case series presents 9 patients who experienced transient global amnesia following sea swimming between 2019 and 2024 at Bantry General Hospital, a hospital located in a coastal town on the south of Ireland.

Case presentations: Patients who presented with "amnesia" or "transient global amnesia" were identified through searching the hospital database. Patients whose symptoms were directly related to sea swimming were included in this report. All 9 patients were women, with ages ranging from 55 to 82 years. Symptoms typically developed during or immediately after swimming, with durations ranging from 1 to 7 hours. Common symptoms included confusion, short-term memory loss, repetitive questioning and disorientation to time and/or place. Water temperatures ranged from 9.2°C to 18°C. Neuroimaging, including computed tomography scans of the brain for all patients and magnetic resonance imaging for 3 patients, showed no acute changes. All patients experienced full symptom resolution within 24 hours.

Conclusions: This case series highlights the link between cold water immersion during sea swimming and transient global amnesia. The consistent association with sea swimming aligns with previous reports identifying cold water immersion as a trigger for transient global amnesia. These findings warrant further investigation into the relationship between sea swimming and transient global amnesia. Clinicians should be aware of this potential trigger when evaluating patients with acute onset amnesia, especially in coastal areas.

Learning points: This case series highlights the link between sea swimming and the occurrence of transient global amnesia.With the increasing popularity of sea swimming around Europe, clinicians should be aware of this phenomenon.Further research is necessary to understand the underlying mechanism behind this phenomenon.

冷水游泳引发的短暂性全身性健忘症:爱尔兰海岸一家医院5年内出现的9例病例
背景:短暂性全局性遗忘症是一种临床综合征,其特征为突然发作的顺行性遗忘症,常伴有反复询问,持续时间可达24小时,完全消退,无其他神经功能缺损。本病例系列介绍了9名患者,他们在2019年至2024年期间在位于爱尔兰南部沿海城镇的Bantry总医院进行海游泳后经历了短暂性全身性健忘症。病例介绍:通过检索医院数据库,确定出现“健忘症”或“短暂性全身性健忘症”的患者。本报告纳入了症状与海游泳直接相关的患者。9例患者均为女性,年龄55 ~ 82岁。症状通常在游泳期间或游泳后立即出现,持续时间为1至7小时。常见症状包括精神错乱、短期记忆丧失、反复询问以及对时间和/或地点失去方向感。水温从9.2°C到18°C不等。神经影像学,包括所有患者的大脑计算机断层扫描和3例患者的磁共振成像,未显示急性变化。所有患者均在24小时内症状完全缓解。结论:这一系列的病例强调了在海水中浸泡冷水和短暂性全身性健忘症之间的联系。与海洋游泳的一致关联与先前的报告一致,即冷水浸泡是短暂性全身性遗忘的触发因素。这些发现为进一步研究海洋游泳和短暂性全身性健忘症之间的关系提供了依据。临床医生在评估急性失忆症患者时应该意识到这种潜在的触发因素,特别是在沿海地区。学习要点:这个系列的案例强调了海洋游泳和短暂性全身性失忆症之间的联系。随着欧洲各地海水游泳的日益普及,临床医生应该意识到这一现象。需要进一步的研究来了解这一现象背后的潜在机制。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
166
审稿时长
8 weeks
期刊介绍: The European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine is an official journal of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM), representing 35 national societies from 33 European countries. The Journal''s mission is to promote the best medical practice and innovation in the field of acute and general medicine. It also provides a forum for internal medicine doctors where they can share new approaches with the aim of improving diagnostic and clinical skills in this field. EJCRIM welcomes high-quality case reports describing unusual or complex cases that an internist may encounter in everyday practice. The cases should either demonstrate the appropriateness of a diagnostic/therapeutic approach, describe a new procedure or maneuver, or show unusual manifestations of a disease or unexpected reactions. The Journal only accepts and publishes those case reports whose learning points provide new insight and/or contribute to advancing medical knowledge both in terms of diagnostics and therapeutic approaches. Case reports of medical errors, therefore, are also welcome as long as they provide innovative measures on how to prevent them in the current practice (Instructive Errors). The Journal may also consider brief and reasoned reports on issues relevant to the practice of Internal Medicine, as well as Abstracts submitted to the scientific meetings of acknowledged medical societies.
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