Isolated bilateral abducens nerve palsies caused by the rupture of a vertebral artery aneurysm.
We report two cases with isolated bilateral abducens nerve palsies due to the rupture of a vertebral aneurysm. Surgery revealed that the aneurysm did not directly compress the abducens nerve. Within a year after the subarachnoid hemorrhage, the patients gained full recovery from the bilateral abducens nerve palsies. In view of the clinical and operative findings, it may be regarded as a compression and/or stretching of the bilateral abducens nerves by a thick clot in the prepontine cistern, and not as a manifestation of the raised intracranial pressure. The mechanisms of the isolated abducens nerve palsy are discussed.
Morioka
T
T
Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Matsushima
T
T
Yokoyama
N
N
Muratani
H
H
Fujii
K
K
Fukui
M
M
D000010:Abducens Nerve; D000368:Aged; D017542:Aneurysm, Ruptured / Q000150:complications*; D003389:Cranial Nerve Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010243:Paralysis / Q000209:etiology*; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology; D014711:Vertebral Artery