Foster Kennedy syndrome

Foster the Kennedy's disease, also known as Kennedy's disease or Gowers Paton Kennedy's disease, results from increasing the intracranial pressure and the simultaneous compression of the optic nerve. The cause is usually a space-occupying formation at the base of the frontal lobe. This results in an atrophy of the optic nerve compressed ( optic atrophy ) on the side of the lesion and unilateral papilledema on the other ( contralateral ) side. The atrophied optic nerve forms no papilledema.

May underlie tumors ( meningiomas often ) in the area of the wing of the sphenoid or frontal lobe. Named the Foster - Kennedy syndrome is named after the Irish- American neurologist Robert Foster Kennedy, who described it in 1911 as the first.

The Foster Kennedy syndrome should be distinguished from the Kennedy disease ( spinobulbar muscular atrophy type Kennedy, SBMA ), which is named after the neurologist William R. Kennedy, and is a completely different condition.