[Sensory syndrome of the cheiro-oral area due to a local lesion of the thalamus: contribution to the knowledge of the nervous system in humans].

A cheiro-oral syndrome with sensory disturbances of the hand or fingers and the corner of the mouth on the same side may be due to a contralateral thalamic lesion as demonstrated by carefully studied anatomoclinical cases. The lesion is situated in the inferior and internal part of the ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus and the most external part of the ventral posteromedial (VPM) nucleus. These data show that, on the thalamic homonculus, the representation of the hand (in the VPL nucleus) is in close contact by its radial edge with that of the corner of the mouth (in the VPM nucleus). They illustrate the interest of the anatomoclinical method for the knowledge of the CNS in man. Such contributions provide modern neurologic imaging technics with the necessary anatomical basis.