1 The Department of Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and Babies Hospital, New York, N.Y.
2 The Department of Neurosurgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and Babies Hospital, New York, N.Y.
3 The Department of Pediatrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and Babies Hospital, New York, N.Y.
The postoperative changes in a 4 yr., 10 mos. old boy with central autonomic dysfunction associated with defective lacrimation are reported. The operative procedure was division of the tentorium on the right side. Immediately following operation there was a transitory disappearance of the lability of blood pressure and abnormal reactions to mild anxiety. These features returned to their preoperative state within three weeks, but since then appear to have abated somewhat. Lacrimation, however, first made its appearance about six days after the operative procedure and has persisted to the time of writing, over three months later. Exact interpretation of these phenomena has not been attempted.
Submitted on July 15, 1948