Cortical blindness--a catastrophic side effect of vincristine.
The term 'cortical blindness' indicates loss of sight due to bilateral lesions of the occipital lobes. It is a rare, but severe, side effect of chemotherapeutic agents. Cortical blindness was diagnosed in a 67 year old woman with leiomyosarcoma of the large bowel, treated by vincristine-containing chemotherapy. Cortical blindness without focal neurological signs and with two repeated normal brain computed tomography scans, in which there was no structural damage to the occipital lobes, suggests a metabolic or toxic reaction as a cause in our patients. The temporal relationship between vincristine treatment and cortical blindness implicates vincristine as the possible causative agent for this catastrophic phenomenon.
Merimsky
O
O
Department of Oncology, Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Israel.
Loewenstein
A
A
Chaitchik
S
S
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D001766:Blindness / Q000139:chemically induced*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000187:drug effects; D014750:Vincristine / Q000009:adverse effects*
D014750:Vincristine