Cortical blindness caused by acute general cerebral swelling.
A 7-year-old girl who suffered from acute general cerebral swelling as a result of a traffic accident showed cortical blindness. Computed tomography (CT) scan on admission revealed marked slitlike ventricles and narrowing of the perimesencephalic cisterns, which indicated general cerebral swelling. While hospitalized, the patient developed transtentorial herniation twice on day 3, and CT scans at herniation episodes showed disappearance of the perimesencephalic cisterns. After recovery of consciousness, the patient showed cortical blindness, and during gradual recovery she showed pure alexia without agraphia. The visual evoked potentials at 8 weeks, 16 weeks, and 3 years 4 months after trauma showed normalization of the pattern, but revealed left occipital inactivity.
Makino
A
A
Department of Neurosurgery, Anan-Kyoei Hospital, Tokushima-ken, Japan.
Soga
T
T
Obayashi
M
M
Seo
Y
Y
Ebisutani
D
D
Horie
S
S
Ueda
S
S
Matsumoto
K
K
D000208:Acute Disease; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000150:complications; D002648:Child; D004677:Encephalocele / Q000150:complications; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014785:Vision, Ocular