Central pontine myelinolysis. A clinical reappraisal.

We discuss three patients with clinical findings of central pontine myelinolysis (CPM). Two patients survived with minimal neurological deficits, and one patient died from medical complications while recovering from his neurological deficit. Postmortem examination showed the typical lesion of CPM. Brain stem auditory evoked potential studies in two of our patients indicate that there was impairment of function in auditory pontine pathways that returned to normal as the patients improved clinically. We conclude that CPM can be diagnosed clinically and that patients may recover if intercurrent illnesses are vigorously treated.