[Isolated cheiro-facial formication caused by a thalamic hematoma]

A 25 year-old Saudi female patient presented with numbness of the left half of the face and the tongue and the left hand. Neurological and neuropsychological examinations were normal. Brain CT showed a small hematoma (5 to 7 mm diameter) of the right thalamus probably destroying or compressing the ventropostero-median and ventropostero-lateral thalamic nuclei. Thalamic hematoma has been reported only twice as a cause of pure sensory stroke. The absence of clinical signs together with the presence of symptoms, and the particular topography of the symptoms are discussed.