Mesencephalic hemorrhage: a report of 3 cases

ABSTRACT

We studied three patients with spontaneous mesencephalic hemorrhages. All presented with some degree of impaired consciousness and abnormal ocular movements. One patient had a convergence-retraction nystagmus with a unilateral hemorrhage confined to the dorsal midbrain. Another patient showed left third nerve palsy due to a unilateral hemorrhage that involved ventral midbrain. The third patient revealed left internuclear ophthalmoplegia with ataxia due to a pinpoint hemorrhage in the tegmentum of the left midbrain. The patients survived and major neurologic deficits recovered, but abnormal ocular movements persisted.