[An ischemic syndrome of the oculumotor nucleus: associated clinical and anatomical variations on a theme]

Nuclear syndrome of the oculomotor nerve was first described in 1981, it is characterized by the association of an ipsilateral third nerve palsy with a paresis of elevation in the contralateral eye. This syndrome can be caused by vascular or tumoral lesions in the upper midbrain. It is rarely due to ischemic unilateral mesencephalic lesions, because ischemic lesions of the midbrain are usually integrated in a diffuse involvement of the brainstem and the thalamo-sub-thalamic region. In case of nuclear syndrome of the third nerve due to isolated upper midbrain infarct in the paramedian territory, dependent on branches of the basilar artery, oculomotor symptoms are frequently isolated. On the contrary, in fascicular syndromes of the third nerve, resulting from stroke in more lateral territories upon branches of the posterior cerebral artery, many neurological symptoms are associated with the oculomotor signs. We describe 3 patients presenting with a characteristic nuclear syndrome of the third nerve, resulting from a unilateral paramedian ischemic stroke in the upper midbrain, confirmed by cerebral CT scan or MRI examination. Clinical presentation differed in each case, and marked contralateral hemiparesia, cerebellar syndrome and focal asterixis were associated in various ways with the stereotyped oculomotor disorders. In the 3 cases, the nuclear syndrome of the third nerve was associated with fascicular involvement of the nerve, in an unusual clinical picture. The theoretical distinction between nuclear and fascicular syndromes is supported by the anatomical description of the arterial segmentation in the upper midbrain, which remains debated since the first description. According to the variability of clinical presentations, it seems that the arterial territories may be more variable than initially described. Therefore, ischemic lesions of the upper midbrain may involve some vascular borderzones with a high inter-individual variability. Upper midbrain strokes may thus lead to variable clinical pictures.