Unilateral thalamic infarction presenting as vertical gaze palsy: A case report

Introduction. Vertical gaze palsy is a recognized manifestation of midbrain lesions. It rarely is a consequence of unilateral thalamic infarction. Case presentation. We report the case of a 48-year-old African-American woman who presented to our facility with vertical gaze palsy and evidence of left medial thalamic infarct on diffusion-weighted imaging without coexisting midbrain ischemia. The etiology of infarct was determined to be small vessel disease after extensive investigation. Conclusions: This report suggests a possible role of the thalamus as a vertical gaze control center. Clinicoradiological studies are needed to further define the role of the thalamus in vertical gaze control. © 2011Khan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.