[Neuropsychological study of long-term cerebral complications of eclampsia (author's transl)].

A review of the literature shows that long-lasting neurological complications of eclampsia are rare, but that, when present, they frequently involve visual function. Two patients are reported, whose symptomatology suggested damage to the posterior region of both cerebral hemispheres. The first patient showed a Balint's syndrome with complete inability to perceive more than one object at a time, erratic gaze movements and optic ataxia. After a year and half a marked improvement was observed. The second patient presented with severe of dyscalculia, spatial memory disorders, constructional apraxia and mild aphasia. She recovered completely in one year. This symptomatology might result from ischemic lesions in the watershed area between the territories of the middle and posterior cerebral arteries, the underlying mechanism being the compression of the posterior cerebral artery against the tentorium, caused by edema.