In 1974 Oliver Sacks was hiking through a remote part of Norway when he suffered a nasty injury to one leg. Although he managed to get to help and was successfully operated on, he struggled to relearn to walk and felt alienated from the limb. Jon Stone (consultant neurologist in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Edinburgh) explains why from Sacks’s writing he thinks this was a case of functional paralysis, and why the account is so valuable.

And progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy: the rare but potentially fatal condition which can follow monoclonal antibody treatment. Dirk Mentzer (Department of Safety of Medicinal Products and Medical Devices, Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Germany) talks us through his new case definition, and offers some clinical advice.

See also:

‘A Leg to Stand On’ by Oliver Sacks: a unique autobiographical account of functional paralysis http://tinyurl.com/bc4oavv

Case definition for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy following treatment with monoclonal antibodies http://tinyurl.com/aa2pmsq

A poster presentation of the PML case definition http://tinyurl.com/b2db26e