Foville Syndrome Due to Pontine Hemorrhage and Pontine Infarct: Case Series

Foville Syndrome is a rare clinical feature of stroke or brain hemorrhage. Few cases have been reported worldwide particularly in Asian, Indonesia, Aceh. Patient 1: We report the case of a female 64 years old patient, was admitted in the Neurology Department of Dr. Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for an abrupt onset of right body side weakness two day before admission. That weakness was preceded by acute headaches and rotatory vertigo with vomiting. with hypertension history since 5 years. Physical examination found paralysis of right oculomotor movements with intact response of pupils to light, right trochlear nerve palsy, left ipsilateral facial nerve palsy, and right hemiparesis which constitute of Foville syndrome. The brain CT scan shown in the right pontine hypodensity area is pontine infarct. Etiological investigations done to chronic hypertension. Patient received antiplatelet therapy and control of vascular risk factors for secondary prevention (hypertension theraphy), and physiotherapy as treatment with clinical improvement. And she has been discharge 8 days later. Patient 2: 45-year-old right-handed female, was admitted in the Neurology Department of Dr. Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for an abrupt onset of right body side weakness two day before admission. That weakness was preceded by acute headaches and rotatory vertigo with vomiting. with hypertension history since 5 years. Physical examination found paralysis of right oculomotor movements with intact response of pupils to light, right trochlear nerve palsy, left ipsilateral facial nerve palsy, and right hemiparesis which constitute of Foville syndrome. The brain CT scan shown spontaneous hemorrhage in the left pontine’s. Etiological investigations done to chronic hypertension. Patient received therapy control of vascular risk factors for secondary prevention (hypertension theraphy), and physiotherapy as treatment with clinical improvement. And she has been discharge 10 days later. The diagnosis and management of brainstem stroke bring a considerable burden to the healthcare system, the patient, the family members, and the society at large. The slow increase in the global burden of stroke has been steadily increasing.

Pontine stroke mimicking Bell’s palsy: a cautionary tale!

Stroke has been called apoplexy since the ancient times of Babylonia. Johann Jakob Wepfer, a Swiss physician, first described the aetiology, clinical features, pathogenesis and postmortem features of an intracranial haemorrhage in 1655. Haemorrhagic and ischaemic strokes are the two subtypes of stroke. Bell’s palsy usually presents with an isolated facial nerve palsy. A lacunar infarct involving the lower pons is a rare cause of solitary infranuclear facial paralysis. The authors present the case of a 66-year-old woman presenting with a 3-day history of headache, vertigo, nausea, vomiting and facial weakness. Her comorbidities included diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia. It was challenging to identify the pontine infarct on MRI due to its small size and the confounding presentation of complete hemi-facial paralysis mimicking Bell’s palsy. Our case provides a cautionary reminder that an isolated facial palsy should not always be attributed to Bell’s palsy, but can be a presentation of a rare dorsal pontine infarct as observed in our case. Anatomic knowledge is crucial for clinical localisation and correlation.

Medial Pontomedullary Stroke Mimicking Severe Bell’s Palsy: A Case Report

Introduction: Patients with acute unilateral upper and lower facial palsy frequently present to the emergency department fearing they have had a stroke, but many cases are benign Bell’s palsy. Case Report: We present a rare case of a medial pontomedullary junction stroke causing upper and lower hemifacial paralysis associated with severe dysphagia and contralateral face and arm numbness. Conclusion: Although rare, pontine infarct must be considered in patients who present with both upper and lower facial weakness. Unusual neurologic symptoms (namely diplopia, vertigo, or dysphagia) and signs (namely gaze palsy, nystagmus, or contralateral motor or sensory deficits) should prompt evaluation for stroke.

Association of pretreatment pontine infarction with extremely poor outcome after endovascular thrombectomy in acute basilar artery occlusion

BackgroundThe association between pretreatment brain stem infarction and thrombectomy outcomes remains to be elucidated in patients with acute basilar artery occlusion (BAO). We aimed to assess the association between pretreatment pontine infarction and extremely poor outcome in patients who underwent endovascular thrombectomy due to acute BAO.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed data from a stroke database to identify patients with acute BAO who underwent thrombectomy between January 2011 and August 2019. Patient characteristics, pretreatment diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data, and outcomes were evaluated. The largest infarct core was expressed as the percentage of infarct core area in each brain stem region on the DWI slice displaying the largest lesion. Extremely poor outcome was defined as a 90-day modified Rankin Scale score of 5 or 6.ResultsA total of 113 patients were included, 37 of whom had extremely poor outcome. Among the 15 patients with extensive pontine infarction (largest pontine infarct core of ≥70%), 93.3% had extremely poor outcome. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the following variables were independent predictors of extremely poor outcome: extensive pontine infarction (adjusted OR 22.494; 95% CI 2.335 to 216.689; p=0.007), posterior circulation ASPECTS on DWI (adjusted OR per 1-point decrease 1.744; 95% CI 1.197 to 2.541; p=0.004), age (adjusted OR per 1-year increase 1.067; 95% CI 1.009 to 1.128; p=0.023), and baseline NIHSS (adjusted OR per 1-point increase 1.105; 95% CI 1.004 to 1.216; p=0.040).ConclusionOur results showed that a large pontine infarct core of ≥70% on pretreatment DWI was strongly associated with extremely poor outcome among patients treated with endovascular thrombectomy for acute BAO.