Transient ocular motor paresis associated with acute internal carotid artery occlusion

Abstract

While sudden monocular blindness and occlusion of the central retinal artery associated with acute thrombosis of the internal carotid artery are well reported, concurrent unilateral ophthalmoparesis is not. We studied 3 adult men who did not have other major signs of vascular disease but who exhibited the complete syndrome. The initial paresis of the oculomotor, trochlear, and abducens nerves varied in each individual and slowly cleared over days to weeks in all, but vision did not return in any. Each had mild-to-moderate signs of hemispheric dysfunction. In each, the thrombus extended from the origin of the internal carotid to its intracranial bifurcation into the anterior and middle cerebral arteries. It also occluded the proximal one-half to two-thirds of the ophthalmic artery. None had evidence of vasculitis or compromise of the posterior circulation.