[Progressive bulbopontine paralysis in children].

A case of pons-bulbar palsy in a 10 year-old girl is reported. The authors insist on the fact that motor cranial nerve nuclear dysfunction was isolated, without any pyramidal tract disorder. They also emphasize the slow course of the disease, which after one year of quick progression was stable for the next 5 years. Nineteen identical cases were found in the literature. From this nosographic group, one must exclude patients with associated lateral spinal tract dysfunction: these patients must be discussed with the juvenile or infantile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis group. The heterogeneity of the pons-bulbar paralysis group is also underlined: the course may be quickly fatal or, on the contrary, protracted for a long time; genetic transmission is also quite variable.