[Body lateropulsion as the main symptom of pontine vascular disease--comparison with lateral medullary vascular disease].

Lateropulsion of the body is rarely encountered as an isolated or predominant manifestation of pontine cerebrovascular disease. We compared 2 cases of pontine vascular lesions with 3 cases of lateral medullary infarction; all the patients had presented with body lateropulsion. The patients with pontine lesions tended to full on the side contralateral to the lesion,whereas the patients with lateral medullary infarction, fell on the ipsilateral side. Lateropulsion itself improved within 1 or 2 weeks in all the patients. The pontine lesion was localized to the paramedian tegmentum, just ventral to the fourth ventricle, while the medullary infarction was localized to the lateral surface of the medulla oblongata. The present findings support the possibility that body lateropulsion in patients with pontine vascular lesion is attributed to lesions in the graviceptive pathway that ascends through the paramedian pontine tegmentum.