Aneurysm of the intracranial carotid artery; syndrome of frontal headache with oculomotor nerve paralysis.

Abstract

It is proposed to critically analyze 31 consecutive cases of aneurysm of the intracranial carotid artery, the chief features of which were oculomotor paralysis or paresis associated with frontal or orbital head pains, and to show that these combined symptoms are sufficient to permit a presumptive diagnosis of aneurysm of the intracranial carotid artery. Of the 31 cases with this clinical diagnosis, based primarily on these two symptoms, all were proved either by arteriography or operative exposure and many of them by both. Surgical therapy and operative results in 26 of the patients will be discussed. This closely related combination of symptoms has been recognized and discussed by many observers, particularly in relation to underlying pathologic states that might give rise to them. Thus aneurysms of the intracranial carotid, as well as the relationship of anomalous vessel arrangements to the basal cranial nerves, have been thoroughly studied. A close analysis