Simultaneous lesions of the ninth, tenth and eleventh cranial nerves have frequently been observed as the result of war injuries. Often an injury of one or more additional nerves has been present (most frequently the twelfth), occasionally the cervical sympathetic and rarely the seventh nerve.
Extracranial lesions of the last four cranial nerves had rarely been observed prior to the war. Such cases were attributed either to compression by a tumor, gumma, or tuberculous gland; or to an inflammatory condition. One of the most striking examples of such a case was reported by Beck and Hassin.1
Lesions of the ninth, tenth and eleventh cranial nerves were more frequently noted as the result of nontraumatic causes acting about the jugular foramen. Vernet2 has described six such cases due to compression, of which two were observed by him, and three as the result of inflammation, two of which were his