INFERIOR BRANCH OCULOMOTOR NERVE PALSY - A CASE-REPORT

We describe a 34-year-old man with acute, nontraumatic inferior branch oculomotor nerve palsy. Complete ophthalmologic, neurologic, and syst emic examinations were otherwise normal. The oculomotor nerve palsy re served, but the patient subsequently developed bilateral upper extremi ty numbness and painful dysesthesias in the distribution of the median nerves. These observations suggest that inferior branch oculomotor ne rve palsy, although uncommon, may occur as part of a more generalized neurologic disorder, presumed in our patient to be either vasculitic o r demyelinating in nature.