Intracranial venous thrombosis complicating oral contraception: treatment by anticoagulant drugs.

The first suggestion that oral contraception might be responsible for cerebral vascular disease was made by Lorentz (1962), when he described the case of a young woman who had been taking the contraceptive pill norethynodrel (Enavid) and had developed a left parietal vascular lesion. Other authors subsequently reported similar cases. Walsh et al. (1965) were the first to prove that the underlying disorder in these cases might be venous rather than arterial thrombosis. Among their 17 cases of cerebral vascular accidents in young women taking the contraceptive pill they reported one fatal case in which there was both arterial and venous thrombosis and one fatal case of pure venous thrombosis. Atkinson et al. (1970) described five further fatal cases. of cerebral venous thrombosis, and Buchanan and Brazinsky (1970) another. Pathological studies of two more fatal cases have been reported by Poltera (1972).