1. List the body systems and describe the functions over which the hypothalamus has some control.

2. In a patient’s case study, any observed or suspected structural/functional abnormalities of body structures are reported. Prepare a brief case study of a patient who has suffered severe trauma to the medulla oblongata from a blow to the back of the skull.

3. After being revived from knockout punch during the world featherweight championship fight, the ringside physician determined that the boxer had sustained oculomotor and facial nerve damage when his right zygomatic bone was shattered from a hard left hook. What symptoms might the boxer have displayed that would have caused the physician to come to this conclusion?

4. Trauma to the spinal cord is always serious. The higher it occurs in the spine, the more serious it is. Why should this be so? Explain how a reflex arc below the level of the trauma may continue to function for a short while, regardless of the extent of the trauma. What may be indicated if a patient with a spinal cord injury can move his lower limbs but has no sensory perception?

5. A 63-year-old truck driver made an appointment with the company doctor because of pain and numbness in his left leg. Following a routine physical exam, the physician scheduled the man for a magnetic resonance imaging of his lumbar region. The patient’s MR scan indicates that he has a herniated disc in the lumbar region. Explain how such a condition could develop and account for the man’s symptoms. Discuss the possible treatment of this condition. (You may have to refer to medical textbooks in your library to find the answer.)

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