Jean Lhermitte
Jean-Jacques Lhermitte (1877-1959) was a French neurologist and neuropsychiatrist.
Lhermitte coined the term internuclear ophthalmoplegia (sometimes known as Lhermitte syndrome)
He made significant contributions to the study of narcolepsy, encephalitis lethargica, neuropathies, Huntington disease, and the phantom limb phenomenon
first described peduncular hallucinosis [red nucleus hallucinatory syndrome] in 1922
Biography
- Born 20 January 1877 in Mont Saint-Père, France
- Died 24 January 1959
Medical Eponyms
Lejonne-Lhermitte disease (1909): [aka olivo-rubro-cerebellar atrophy] adult onset, characterized by atrophy and gliosis of the olives, cerebellar cortex, dentate nucleus, and both superior and inferior cerebellar peduncles
Lhermitte-Cornil-Quesnel syndrome (1920): [aka progressive pyramidopallidal degeneration] syndrome of slowly progressive pyramidopallidal degeneration, manifest as pathological emotionality (involuntary crying and laughing), generalized muscle rigidity, pseudobulbar palsy, and chorea. Pathologically, there is cell loss in the basal ganglia and dentate nucleus with calcium deposition
Lhermitte-Duclos disease (1920): [aka granular cell hypertrophy, dysplastic gangliocytoma of the cerebellum, Cowden disease] primary degeneration of the granular layer of the cerebellum; dominantly inherited hamartomatous condition. Characterized by hypertrophy of the ganglion cells in the granular and molecular layers and excessive myelination of axons in the molecular layer.
Lhermitte sign (1924, 1927): [aka barber’s chair sign] symptom, comprising the sensation of an electric shock or paraesthesia that shoots down the neck and/or into the limbs when the neck is flexed or on coughing. Initially described by Babinski, Lhermitte regarded the sign as diagnostic of multiple sclerosis. However, any cervical cord lesion, intrinsic or extrinsic, and vitamin B12 deficiency is capable of inducing it. One of the patients described in Lhermitte’s 1924 publication gave the following description
Original
English
Lorsque je baissais la tête, je ressentais une secousse violente dans la nuque et une douleur ressemblant à celle que produit un courant électrique me parcourait tout le corps, depuis la nuque jusqu’aux pieds, en suivant la colonne vertébrale.
Lhermitte 1924
When I bent my head, I felt a violent shock in the neck and a pain like an electric current running through the whole body, from the neck down the vertebral column into the feet
Lhermitte 1924
Lhermitte-McAlpine syndrome (1926): combined pyramidal and extrapyramidal tract syndrome. Gradual adult onset with slow progression, characterized by parkinsonism and choreic movements of the face and bulbar muscles with pseudobulbar and pyramidal signs, and marked hypertonia. Pathological examination shows lesions in the putamen, globus pallidus, and pyramidal tracts.
Lhermitte syndrome (1922): [aka peduncular hallucinosis, red nucleus hallucinatory syndrome] Lhermitte described a 72 year-old female who experienced bizarre visual hallucinations associated with clinical signs suggesting focal midbrain and pontine involvement. Ludo van Bogaert (1897-1989) described similar features in a 59-year-old female and proposed to use the term “l’hallucinose pédonculaire” (peduncular hallucinosis) to describe the phenomenon.
Lhermitte-Lévy syndrome (1931): slowly progressing paralysis following a stroke, with incessant choreiform movements of arms and legs (rhythmic trembling), and visual and auditory hallucinations.
Lhermitte syndrome: [internuclear ophthalomoplegia, Roth-Bielschowsky syndrome] term INO introduced by Lhermitte to describe the clinical phenomenon of horizontal jerk nystagmus in the abducting eye and impaired adduction of the other eye on lateral gaze, the lesion being in the medial longitudinal fasciculus on the side of the adduction failure.
Major Publications
- Lejonne P, Lhermitte J-J. Atrophie olivo-rubro-cérébelleuse. Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière 1909;22:605–619. [Olivo-rubro-cerebellar atrophy]
- Lhermitte J-J. Les maladies du sommeil et des narcolepsies. Rapport présenté lors de la vingtième session du congrès des médecins aliénistes et neurologistes de France et des pays de langue française à Bruxelles-Liège. 1910
- Claude H, Lhermitte JJ. Le syndrome infundibulaire dans un cas du tumeurs de III ventricle. La Presse Médicale 1917; 25(41): 417-418. [parietal ataxia]
- Claude H, Lhermitte J-J. Les commotions directe de la moelle épinière. La Presse Médicale 1918; 26(56): 514-515.
- Roussy G, Lhermitte J. Les psychonévroses de guerre. 1917 [English translation: The psychoneuroses of war. 1918]
- Lhermitte J-J, Cornil L, Quesnel. Le syndrome de la degeneration pyramido-pallidale progressive. Revue Neurologique 1920; 36: 262–9.
- Lherrmtte J-J, Duclos P. Sur un ganglioneurome diffus du cortex du cervelet. Bulletin de l’Association française pour l’étude du cancer. 1920; 9: 99-107 [Lhermitte-Duclos disease]
- Lhermitte J-J. L’encéphalite léthargique: anatomie et physiologie pathologiques. Arch Ophthalmol Berlin 1921;38.
- Lhermitte J-J. Syndrome de la calotte pédonculaire. Les troubles psychosensoriels dans les lesions du mesencepahle. Revue Neurologique, 1922, 38: 1359-1365. [Lhermitte hallucinosis]
- Lhermitte J-J, Bollak J, Nicholas M. Les douleurs a type de decharge electrique consecutives a la flexion cephalique dans la sclerose en plaques. Un cas de forme sensitive de la sclerose multiple. Revue Neurologique 1924; 41(2): 56–62. [Lhermitte sign]
- Lhermitte J-J, McAlpine D. A clinical and pathological resume of combined disease of the pyramidal and extrapyramidal systems with especial reference to a new syndrome. Brain 1926; 49(2): 157–81. [Lhermitte-McAlpine syndrome]
- Lhermitte J, Lévy G, Nicolas M. Les sensations de décharge électrique symptôme précoce de la sclérose en plaques. Clinique et pathogénie. La Presse Médicale. 1927; 39: 610-613. [Lhermitte sign]
- Lhermitte JJ, Lévy G. Phénomènes d’allucinose chez une malade presentant une torsion et une contracture athetoides intentionnelles du bras. Revue neurologique, 1931; I: 609-610 [Lhermitte-Lévy syndrome]
- Lhermitte JJ, Lévy G. L’hallucinose pedonculaire. Revue neurologique, 1931; I: 312–318.
- Lhermitte J-J, Mme Delthil S, Garnier. Syndrome contralateral du noyau rouge avec hallucinations visuelles et auditives. Revue Neurologique 1938; 70: 623-628. [Lhermitte-Lévy syndrome]
- Lhermitte J-J. Visual Hallucination of the Self. Br Med J 1951;1:431-434
Controversies
Name: Jean; Jean-Jaques; Jaques-Jean
References
- van Bogaert L. Syndrome inferieur du noyau rouge, troubles psychosensoriels d’origine mesocephalique. Revue neurologique, 1924; 40: 417-423.
- Gutrecht JA. Lhermitte’s sign. From observation to eponym. Arch Neurol. 1989;46(5):557-558.
- Grzybowski A, Pugaczewska M, Pięta A, Stolarek I. Jean Jacques Lhermitte (1877-1959). J Neurol. 2019;266(8):2090-2091.
- Kosty JA et al. Jacques Jean Lhermitte and the syndrome of peduncular hallucinosis. Neurosurg Focus. 2019;47(3):E9.
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