It is generally recognized that the appearance of the decerebrate state in patients harboring space-occupying intracranial lesions is of grave prognostic import. However, survival and recovery of such patients is well documented.1 Survivors have exhibited varying degrees of neurological deficit, related to the decerebrate state as well as to its cause. Protracted coma, extensor rigidity, hemiparesis, hemiplegia, third-nerve palsy, homonymous hemianopsia, and ataxia have all been described. Postural diplopia, or dissociated eye movements on altering the position of the head, has not been recorded; hence this report, with some conjecture as to the locus of the lesion, is presented.
Report of a Case
A 9-year-old, right-handed white male fell while ice-skating at 5 P.M. and sustained a blow to the right parieto-occipital region of the head. There was no loss of consciousness. Two hours later, the patient complained of headache and was seen by a physician who noted no