Oval pupils.

The records of 17 patients whose neurological examination disclosed oval pupils in one or both eyes were reviewed. Sixteen of the 17 had serious cerebrovascular illnesses--hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage (five patients), ruptured saccular aneurysm (five patients), epidural hemorrhage (one patient), bilateral cerebral infarction (two patients), brainstem strokes (two patients), and cerebral anoxia (one patient). One patient was recovering from an oculomotor palsy. Oval pupils usually represent a transient, unstable phase in progressive injury to the oculomotor complex and less frequently a transient phase of recovery.