BRAINSTEM AND CRANIAL NERVE INVOLVEMENT IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Abstract
Nation-wide surveys in Israel in 1960 and 1966 disclosed 295 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Brainstem signs were found in 14 per cent at the onset of the disease and 65 per cent during the course of illness. Cranial nerves supplying extraocular muscles were the most commonly affected. Development of cranial nerve signs was not influenced by sex, age at onset, duration of illness or ethnic origin. Patients with cranial nerve signs tended to have a remittent course. Patients with cranial nerve involvement had a mortality similar to those without such involvement. However, bulbar involvement was associated with an increased death rate. The literature on trigeminal and glossopharyngeal neuralgia, facial paralysis and deafness as well as other cranial nerve involvement in MS is reviewed.

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