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Updated: May 20, 2026

Massive Pontine Hemorrhage by Dual Injection of Autologous Blood
Published on: May 29, 2021
Isolated sixth nerve palsy from hemorrhage of a pontine cavernous malformation
Robert M Mallery1, Joshua P Klein, Misha L Pless
1Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
A 32-year-old woman who developed binocular horizontal diplopia was found to have an isolated fascicular sixth nerve palsy secondary to hemorrhage of a cavernous malformation within the left pontine tegmentum. There was sparing of the paramedian pontine reticular formation and absence of a horizontal gaze palsy. The natural history of cavernous malformations and a mechanism by which hemorrhage of these vascular lesions may produce minimal neurologic signs, including isolated ocular motor cranial nerve palsies, is discussed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that includes susceptibility-weighted sequences leads to their accurate diagnosis.
A 32-year-old woman who developed binocular horizontal diplopia was found to have an isolated fascicular sixth nerve palsy secondary to hemorrhage of a cavernous malformation within the left pontine tegmentum. There was sparing of the paramedian pontine reticular formation and absence of a horizontal gaze palsy. The natural history of cavernous malformations and a mechanism by which hemorrhage of these vascular lesions may produce minimal neurologic signs, including isolated ocular motor cranial nerve palsies, is discussed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that includes susceptibility-weighted sequences leads to their accurate diagnosis.
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