Hemiballism: report of eight cases

We report eight cases of hemiballism. Six patients had diabetes mellitus one patient presented with porencephaly after cranial trauma and one patient had a HIV-associated fungic granuloma (cryptococcus). In the diabetic group three patients had non-ketotic hyperglycemia; two of them with striatal hemorrhage, and the remaining three presented with an ischemic stroke. Hemichorea occurred in 75% of our patients, predominantly in the right side of the body. Six patients had good improvement with treatment with haloperidol and two patients had to undergo a thalamotomy, one of them with good results. In our series of eight patients with hemiballismus we observed an association with diabetes mellitus and stroke, and good clinical improvement.