Encephalopathy with isolated reversible splenial lesion of the corpus callosum.

We report a 51-year-old Japanese man with chronic alcoholism who complained of mental confusion following respiratory and intestinal infections. The splenium of the corpus callosum showed hyperintensity on both diffusion-weighted MR images and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images and hypointensity on T1-weighted images. These findings were resolved on MR images obtained 3 days later. He showed complete neurological recovery within 2 months. We suspected that he had mild encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion after systemic viral or bacterial infection.