Destruction of peripheral white matter of the spinal cord, brain-stem, and optic tracts.

This report concerns a case with unusual lesions consisting of massive destruction of myelinated fibres in a thin marginal layer at the surface of the spinal cord, brain-stem, optic nerve and tract, without involvement of the superficial portions of grey matter. The lesions showed a striking similarity to those produced by barbotage (aspiration and reinjection of cerebrospinal fluid) in experimental animals (Bunge, Bunge, and Ris, 1960). Our case also resembled the experimental model in that it received numerous therapeutic drainings of cerebrospinal fluid because of a cerebrospinal fluid fistula in the sella.