In 1879 Sturge described a patient with hemiparesis, epilepsy and a facial naevus. He ascribed the neurological condition to a naevus of the brain similar to that on the patient's face. Weber gained the distinction of providing the other half of the eponym by describing the radiological appearances of a similar case. In 1955, however, he advanced the self-effacing descriptive term “encephalofacial angiomatosis”. The essential pathological features of the disorder are facial naevus and leptomeningeal angiomatosis. It is generally agreed that buphthalmos (present in Sturge's original case) is not a necessary component.