ATHETOSIS

Abstract

In 1932 Buchanan and one of us (P. C. B.)¹reported a case (case 1) of unilateral (left) athetosis with spastic hemiparesis and unilateral convulsive seizures involving the left side which appeared two weeks after an uncomplicated tonsillectomy in January 1930. Two encephalograms, one made in May and the other in October 1931, revealed no abnormality that was considered significant. In November 1931, almost two years after the onset, the patient was operated on. The right central region was exposed. Electrical stimulation of the precentral gyrus in its middle portion elicited "complex movements of the left arm identical with those involuntary athetoid movements previously observed in the patient." This portion of the precentral gyrus was then extirpated. Microscopic examination revealed that the portion of cortex removed consisted almost entirely of area 6 of Brodmann. When the patient was last seen, on Nov. 13, 1935, it was stated that since