REGIONAL SUBACUTE CRANIAL NEUROPATHIES FOLLOWING INTERNAL CAROTID CISPLATIN INFUSION

The inferolateral trunk arises from the internal carotid artery at C-4 and provides vascular supply to cranial nerves III to VI. We report a patient who developed neuropathies of cranial nerves III, V-1-3, and VI, 48 hours after infusion of cisplatin into the right internal carot id artery for an anaplastic oligoastrocytoma. The clinical and radiogr aphic findings implicated direct toxicity to nerves in the distributio n of the inferolateral trunk. We found additional cases by review of p ublished brain tumor chemotherapy trials, thus identifying a novel, to xic neurovascular mechanism for injury to cranial nerves III to VI.