Brachiofacial paresis is a stroke syndrome without involvement of the lower limb. In the majority of patients, faciobrachial hemiparesis is due to a cortical infarct in the superficial territory of the MCA. It is often seen in lesions involving the complete territory of the lenticulostriate arteries (subcortical hemispheric infarcts) or in the territory of the lateral lenticulostriate arteries. Large artery disease and cardioembolism are the main causes, while small vessel disease is infrequent. In a recent study, four of 22 patients with a brachiofacial pure motor stroke had a non-lacunar cortical infarct in the territory of the superficial MCA ¹⁾.

Pure motor hemiparesis of brachiofacial distribution due to a lacunar infarct is found in only 4% of patients with pure motor lacunar syndromes ²⁾.