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We report on a 77-year-old male patient with neutropenic fever as a result of a newly diagnosed agranulocytosis. The patient was taking metamizole, which is a well known cause of agranulocytosis. The diagnosis of metamizole-induced agranulocytosis as an underestimated side-effect of metamizole could be confirmed by a bone marrow biopsy. The bone marrow and the blood count recovered completely after stopping the therapy with metamizole and administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF).

Background: Since the 1980s, victims of traffic accidents in western countries increasingly report chronic symptoms which they attribute to a whiplash injury of the cervical spine. In an extensive review article published in 1996, it was, however, concluded that this so-called chronic whiplash syndrome has little nosological validity. It was now investigated whether this conclusion could be upheld by the results of later published studies., Methods: Extensive evaluation was carried out of all the whiplash literature listed in Pubmed since 1996 with the question whether research over the last 15 years has achieved a better validation of this syndrome., Results: Of the over 1,600 publications about whiplash since 1996, no study could be identified which confirmed the nosological validity of the chronic whiplash syndrome., Conclusion: As a positive consequence of the results of this study, accident victims suffering whiplash can be informed about the very good prognosis after whiplash in a more trustworthy way. Many iatrogenic injuries can thus be avoided. The expert opinion after whiplash without radiologically documented and/or neurologically confirmed significant acute traumatic injury which can cause chronic symptoms, should generally not be in favor of insurance benefits. The authors propose that all of a set of minimal criteria should be fulfilled if in exceptional cases a probable relationship between the trauma and chronic symptoms can be assumed.

A 45-year-old woman developed bilateral ascending flaccid paralysis after cholera vaccination, 15 days after the first and 1 day after the second injection. The clinical course resulted in nearly complete paralysis of the lower limbs, paresis of the upper limbs and partial involvement of the cranial nerves. There was only slight sensory loss. The CSF revealed no pleocytosis and a protein level of 206 mg/100 ml. Recovery began 2 weeks later and was almost complete after 2 months. Immunological investigations revealed no remarkable changes.