Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
=SYPHILITIC MUSCULAR ATROPHY, probably due either to spinal
parenchymal lesions, or to root neuritis, or to both.=
=Case 33.= Joseph Graham, now 50 years of age, seemed no longer to be
able to do good work as a teamster. His arms had become weak and the
muscles had become tremulous and apparently wasted. There was also pain
in the left leg and hip. It appears that this latter symptom had been
thought to be rheumatism, having begun about 8 years before with a
sudden sharp shooting pain in the left hip, about the region of the
sciatic notch. Graham had rubbed the hip with liniment, but without
reducing the so-called rheumatism. The trembling of the hands had begun
some years later, but no wasting had been noticed except during the past
year. The pain in the leg had suddenly become so severe that a month
before medical observation he had quit work. The question immediately
arose whether Graham was not suffering from some familial form of
muscular atrophy; but according to his representations, there was
nothing of the sort in the family.
=Physically=, there was little to note. =Neurologically=, there was
more. The pupils were somewhat irregular in outline, and the right was
larger than the left. The left pupil failed to react to light, and the
right pupil reacted very slowly and with but a slight excursion. There
was no tremor of the tongue and no evidence of facial palsy nor was
there smoothing of the nasolabial folds. It was somewhat remarkable,
that in the absence of these signs, there was a marked speech defect.
The atrophy of arms, forearms, and hands was well marked, especially the
atrophy of the thenar and hypothenar eminences of the right hand. The
extended hands, especially the right, showed a marked coarse tremor.
Fibrillation was found in the muscles of the hands, forearms, arms, and
pectoral muscles. There was no dysmetria, and the diadochokinesia was
normal. Strength was diminished (dynamometer right hand, 32 kg., left 31
kg.). There was little or no atrophy of the legs, although the left
thigh was perhaps slightly atrophic and the gluteal muscles of the left
side were somewhat flabby. The patellar and Achilles reflexes were
absent on both sides. There was a slight swaying in Romberg position.
Gait was normal. There was a marked tenderness on the left side of the
sciatic notch, as well as over the entire distribution of both external
and internal popliteal nerves. This area of skin was also hyperesthetic.
There were no other neurological signs on systematic examination.
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