[Pure agraphia. Apropos of 2 cases].

Pure agraphia is a disorder of written language without aphasia, alexia or apraxia. Its existence has long been disputed. We report 2 cases due to a left parietal hematoma. In the first patient, with a deep precuneate lesion, agraphia included disorders in handwriting and orthographic problems in copying or writing from dictation with the two hands. The second patient, with a lesion of the postero-inferior part of the left angular gyrus, made errors in choice and combination of letters during dictation, whereas these same letters were well-written and copying was normal. The first cases of pure agraphia were ascribed to frontal lesions and then confusional states. Current opinion tends to implicate parietal lesions of various types: superior or inferior, internal or external. Findings in the present 2 cases and those reported indicate that pure parietal agraphia is heterogeneous.