APOPLESSIA (ictus or apoplectic stroke). — Sudden abolition of the individual’s sensitivity, motility, and external consciousness (v. COMA) due to destructive lesions of the encephalon (cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral embolism). The simultaneous abolition of internal consciousness is probable; thus, although the principal functions of vegetative life remain more or less persistent, the patient must be considered deprived of the use of his own intelligence. If death does not ensue, when the coma resolves, more or less extensive sensory and motor paralyses and speech disorders (aphasia) appear. If the causal lesions were not very extensive or severe, the ictus may resolve, and consciousness may be recovered more or less rapidly and completely, although sensory-motor paralyses and intellectual deficits readily remain. Besides arteriosclerosis, a frequent cause is syphilis.
Giuseppe de Ninno