ABSTRACT
This chapter presents case studies of two patients, M.A. and U.P., in some detail to illustrate the dilemmas clinical neuropsychologists may have when trying to diagnose Locked-In Syndrome (LIS). The first patient had a sudden headache while driving home from work. Thus his lesion was indicative of a diagnosis of LIS and many of the staff thought this was accurate. A neuropsychological assessment, however, suggested this could not be reliably determined. During the assessment, the his second patient was always awake and appeared to be alert. U.P. had an audiology examination and the report said that he had bilateral severe to profound sensori-neural hearing loss, worse on the left side; he also had a glue ear on the left. Both M.A. and U.P. would appear to have ophthalmoplegia, making it difficult for them to control their eye muscles. One of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine's criteria for LIS is communication by eye movement.
