The authors present the pneumoencephalography as a method able to show in vivo the cerebral atrophic lesions resulting of chronic alcoholism. The results of pneumoencephalographic examinations in a series of 42 patients who have made immoderated and prolongated use of alcoholic beverages with high alcoholic contents (sugar-cane-liquor) are exposed: in all cases there was discreet or accentuated increase of the spaces occupied by cerebrospinal fluid. The authors suppose that in the 42 cases the cerebral atrophy was produced by chronic alcoholic intoxication although it is impossible to eliminate the possibility that other factors (especially disgeneticals) could be responsible by such atrophy; they attribute a high medical-legal value to pneumoencephalography for the documentation of observations of chronical alcoholics.
