OTOLOGIC FINDINGS IN OCULOGYRIC CRISES

Abstract

In 1921¹the oculogyric crisis in chronic encephalitis was described as a paroxysmal, intermittent deviation of both eyeballs, usually upward or upward and to one side, accompanied by a deviation or tendency to deviation in the same direction on the part of the head. The spasms as a rule lasted several hours, were generally painful and were often accompanied by signs of excitement and other abnormal psychic states. Since then this condition has been reported many times, but writers are by no means agreed as to the nature of the paroxysms. Some believe them to be functional, and others—and they appear to be in the majority—consider them to be organic manifestations of encephalic lesions with the emotional phases as secondary accompaniments. The implications of the problem for the oculist and otologist lie in their obvious bearing on the complex and much disputed mechanism of associated ocular movements and particularly