Lacunar syndromes due to non ischaemic causes: prevalence and clinical findings (study of 19 patients).

137 consecutive patients with Lacunar Syndrome (LS) were studied in order to evaluate the prevalence between ischaemic and not ischaemic forms. The lacunar infarcts (LI) were 118, the not ischaemic ones 19. These latter were caused by primary intracerebral hemorrhages with rapid recovery (12 cases), multiple sclerosis (3 cases) and unruptured top of the basilar aneurysm, chronic subdural haematoma, Arnold-Chiari malformation type 1, multiple metastases (1 case respectively). In this paper we discussed the probable pathogenetic mechanism and the clinical features in the 19 cases of not ischaemic LS. Moreover, FISHER'S opinion that LS are nearly always due to LI is here discussed.