Balcer L J, Galetta S L, Bagley L J, Pakola S J
Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
Am J Ophthalmol. 1996 Sep;122(3):437-9. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9394(14)72078-1.
To present the magnetic resonance imaging findings for a patient with traumatic oculomotor nerve injury.
We examined a patient with a right pupil-involving oculomotor nerve palsy after severe closed head trauma.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain demonstrated marked signal hypointensity on gradient-echo T2*-weighted images consistent with hemorrhage at the midbrain exit site of the right oculomotor nerve.
Distal fascicular damage or partial rootlet avulsion is a mechanism of injury in some traumatic oculomotor nerve palsies. Gradient-echo T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is the most sensitive method to detect hemorrhagic changes associated with shearing injury.
