FLACCID HEMIPLEGIA IN MAN

Permanent flaccidity after cerebral lesions in man is not often described. The condition probably occurs with fair frequency, especially with vascular lesions. Owing to incomplete clinical examination and the lack of examinations subsequent to the initial one, the failure of the limbs to become spastic usually is not recognized. During a period of twenty-two months 10 cases of severe flaccid paresis or paralysis have been encountered in an active neurologic service. The duration of the flaccidity varied from one month to seven and one-half years, to date or until death. In 6 cases the patients died, and in 3 there were postmortem examinations. The pathologic observations did not bear out the clinical impression that the localization of the lesion causing the enduring flaccidity was entirely postrolandic. There follows a report of the 3 cases in which autopsies were performed. REPORT OF CASES Case 1. —H. W., a white man aged