Recent studies on the electrocardiographic patterns in cases with cerebrovascular accidents have shown that a neural factor might be responsible for the abnormalities in the electrocardiograms, but we have as yet very little clinical information in cases with neurosurgical lesions. The purposes of this presentation are to describe the pre- and postoperative electrocardiographic patterns and to discuss the possible causes inducing abnormalities in the postoperative electrocardiograms.
Evidence is presented in 323 neurosurgical cases that the high incidence of abnormal electrocardiographic patterns, especially flat or inverted T waves and S-T segments depression, are exhibited postoperatively in cases with supratentorial lesions, especially with craniopharyngioma, hypophyseal adenoma and other sellar tumors and with the fronto-temporal lobe tumors.
From the results of this study, it may be suggested that in cases with neurosurgical lesions, electrocardiograms may also be affected by a neural factor from surgical damage to the parapituitary areas of the central nervous system.
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