Medical and nondental treatments of snoring and sleep apnea syndrome.

The prevalence, pathophysiology, and clinical and polysomnographic evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea are reviewed. The history of the development of nasal continuous positive airway pressure, diagnostic titration of the treatment, abolition of nocturnal apneas, and consolidation of sleep architecture by nasal continuous positive airway pressure and long-term patient compliance with the treatment are discussed. The effects of weight gain and weight loss on the severity of obstructive sleep apnea, and cardiovascular and behavioral complications of obstructive sleep apnea are reviewed.

Nocturnal stridor in olivopontocerebellar atrophy.

We describe a patient with olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) who was referred for alleged "snoring." Polysomnogram with video and audio monitoring revealed that the patient actually had nocturnal stridor causing repetitive oxygen desaturations. Direct laryngoscopy while awake showed a unilateral vocal cord paralysis.

Are hippocampal lesions sufficient to cause lasting amnesia?

A 57-year-old woman developed severe generalised amnesia following an embolic stroke. The amnesia persisted until her death nine months later. The left hemisphere had a large infarction of the medial temporal-occipital region, while the right showed only a small infarct limited to the posterior two-thirds of the hippocampus.

Paraplegia following surgery in Foix and Alajouanine syndrome. (Arteriovenous malformation of the spinal cord).

Two patients with spinal cord arteriovenous malformation became paraplegic after removal of the abnormal vessels from the dorsal surface of the thoracolumbar spinal cord. Surgical exposure of a spinal cord arteriovenous malformation without an attempt at removal accelerated the pace of progressive paraparesis in two other patients. The poor outcome of our cases is, however, not representative of modern surgical techniques, since selective spinal angiography and the operating microscope were not used.

Treatable extramedullary cord compression. Meningioma as a cause of the Brown-Séquard syndrome.

The Brown-Séquard syndrome is infrequently reported. Though widely considered indicative of intramedullary spinal cord disease, in the absence of penetrating spinal cord trauma, the syndrome is frequently an early stage of extramedullary spinal cord compression, as an extensive analysis of diverse literatures reveals. We describe two cases resulting from compression of the spinal cord by a meningioma.