The Dejerines and Jumentié were the first to describe a patient with subacute necrotising myelopathy, before Foix and Alajouanine

J. J. Zarranz
Neurosciences and History 2021;9(2):47-54

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

J. J. Zarranz
Emeritus Chair of the Department of Neurosciences. Universidad del País Vasco-EHU, Baracaldo, Spain.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. In 1926, Foix and Alajouanine reported two cases of young men affected by subacute paraplegia caused by a necrotising lesion to the thoracolumbar spine associated with proliferation of abnormal hypertrophic blood vessels (“angio-hypertrophique”). In 1931, Lhermitte et al. published a similar case, coining the term Foix-Alajouanine syndrome, which is used today to refer to subacute necrotising myelopathy with hypertrophic vascular lesions.

Material and results. However, a review of the 1914 volume of Revue Neurologique (Paris) identified an earlier description of a patient with the same syndrome, reported by Joseph Jules Dejerine, Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke, and Joseph Jumentié, which has not been acknowledged in the literature.

Discussion. The main reason for this is probably that the report by the Dejerines and Jumentié focuses on neuroanatomical aspects of the case, with less focus on the pathological basis. Specifically, they emphasise clinicalpathological correlation and the secondary degeneration of the sensory tracts of the spinal cord, which were poorly understood at the time. Studying degeneration was the method on which they had based much of their excellent work Anatomie des centres nerveux.

KEYWORDS

Dejerine, Foix-Alajouanine syndrome, Jumentié, necrotising angiohypertrophic myelopathy, arteriovenous malformations, arteriovenous fistulae

Neurosciences and History 2021;9(2):47-54