The Cranial Mononeuropathies

Dysfunction of a cranial nerve can bring fear to the patient and panic to the doctor. It requires only a little imagination for the patient to extend diplopia to amblyopia, vertigo to total immobility, facial paresis to total disfigurement, or dysphagia to inanition. The physician, confronted with such a patient, becomes like a reluctant spelunker, fearing to search for a diagnosis in the endless caves and tunnels of the skull and the branched and controversial pathways of the brain-stem. The "R/O" list at the end of the intern's write-up loses any pretense of restraint when a nerve above the neck . . .