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Eric W. Lothman, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology Washington University School of Medicine 660 S Euclid St St Louis, MO 63110

Arch Neurol. 1980;37(8):531.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Sackellares and Smith (ARCHIVES 36:857-858, 1979) reported multifocal myoclonus that occurred in a patient receiving large doses of intravenous pencillin and exhibiting criteria of brain death. Their report provokes several comments.

First, the authors implicated penicillin as the cause of the myoclonus. They used a variety of normal laboratory tests to rule out a metabolic cause. As additional evidence, they cited the experimental studies of Kao and Crill¹ and Raichle et al.² A strict analogy to the case at hand is lacking in these instances, however. Kao and Crill used topical applications of penicillin to a "low spinal" (thoracic cord transection) preparation, and all supraspinal structures were intact in the study of Raichle et al. Nonetheless, we observed that "high spinal" (cervical cord transection) and midbrain preparations developed myoclonus after intravenous administration of penicillin.^3-4

Second, the authors hesitated to localize the origin of the myoclonus . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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