[A case of gustatory disturbance caused by ipsilateral pontine hemorrhage]

We reported a 71-year-old woman with sudden-onset hypogeusia. The patient showed no other neurological signs or symptoms except for the taste disturbance. She lost bitter, salty, sour or sweet sensation on the right half of the tongue. A brain CT scan revealed a small hemorrhage in the right tegmentum of the middle pons. The hematoma was adjacent to the forth ventricle, affecting the gustatory tract running from the nucleus solitalius to the pontine taste area (PTA) in the upper pons. The gustatory pathway is generally said to exist around the medial lemniscus and the reticular formation. In this case, however, the gustatory tract would lay in the dorsal portion near the forth ventricle, as no defect other than taste disturbance was accompanied.