Abstract
A 68-year-old woman with hypertension suddenly developed dysphagia and hoarseness. Physical examination revealed paralysis of the right soft palate, pharynx and vocal cord. The symptoms gradually improved and finally disappeared in about 1 month. During that time, no other neurological symptoms and signs appeared. Labolatory examination including cerebrospinal fluid and brain CT scan offered no positive results. Her disorder was diagnosed as Avellis' syndrome, and its lesion was supposed to be a small infarction around the right ambiguous nucleus in the medulla. Only 7 cases of Avellis' syndrome have been reported in Japan. The site of lesion was mostly in the medulla and a frequent cause was cerebral vascular lesion. The syndrome was often accompanied by Horner's syndrome and contralateral hemihypalgesia below neck. A case of Avellis' syndrome like our patient without any other neurological abnormalities throughout the course, indicating an extremely localized lesion, seems to be rare in the literature.
