The Central Nervous System and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning II. Anatomical Study of Brain Lesions following Intoxication with Carbon Monoxide (22 cases)

Abstract

This chapter presents studies on the brain lesions caused by carbon monoxide intoxication in 22 cases, survival of which varied from 1–139 days. Each of these 22 cases has been described with anatomical findings. Impairment of the globi pallidi is the most frequent lesion. It can be limited to the anterior superior portion of the internal nucleus of the globus pallidus and can only be detected on serial sections of the basal ganglia. Studied under these conditions, this lesion was found in 16 times out of 22 cases: only in one case was this lesion very limited and unilateral. Lesions of Ammon's horn occur less frequently (1 out of 2). They are necrotic and of variable extent, affecting either the entire Ammon's horn or only the sector of Sommer. Lesions of the white matter of the hemispheres occur as frequently as those of the globus pallidus. They can place in 4 groups according to decreasing severity of the lesions of the centrum ovale. The chapter emphasizes the existence of intermediate stages among these groups, all of which constitute a continuum of lesions of which the myelinopathy of Grinker is only one particular aspect.