white matter

Help!!!!  In the last 8 weeks my 37yr old husband has had a heart attack, major organ failure, pneumonia and was on life support, he pulled through and was home for 2 1/2 weeks recovering, he then started to become confused on returning to hospital he has since had a severe reaction to halipelodrol (spelling not correct),and developed neuroleptic malignant syndrome, pneumonia, partial collapse lung, liver problems and mrsa, he is now on a ventalator, Dr's have said the last mri showed that the white matter is affected, he is slowly being bough round of sedation and also moving his arms and legs.  What does the white matter control? and what will he / wont he be able to do?  any help and advise would be greatly appreciated.   lynn

[Caliber2005]

Hi,
I feel sorry for your family that you all have to go through all this.
What does white matter control?
White matter controls gross motor and fine motor activity of body. The white matter is the tissue through which messages pass between different areas of gray matter within the nervous system. Using a computer network as an analogy, the gray matter can be thought of as the actual computers themselves, whereas the white matter represents the network cables connecting the computers together.
Most of his routine daily activity he would need help.
Hope it helps.
Bye.

[dazzlynn]

Thank u for ur reply, he has in the last week been taken of sedation an is fully awake and alert, he can move his eyes, arms and legs, he is also speaking, and knows who i am, also saying my name, does this mean he will be ok????

[Caliber2005]

Hi,
If you observe exactly this is the difference between grey matter and white matter lesion. What is he showing is integrity of Grey matter which is normal for him? Grey matter structures (cortex, deep nuclei) process information originating in the sensory organs or in other grey matter regions. This information is conveyed via specialized nerve cell extensions, which form the bulk of the cerebral, cerebellar, and spinal white matter.
Bye.