title: Cortical blindness following spinal surgery: very rare cause of perioperative vision loss.
abstract: A 38-year-old man was operated with posterior spinal decompression and pedicle screw instrumentation for his L2 fracture with incomplete neurological deficit. In the recovery, he complained of blindness in both eyes after twelve hours. Computed tomographic scan and magnetic resonance angiography revealed bilateral occipital lobe infarcts. He remained permanently blind even after three years follow-up. Though rare, perioperative vision loss is a potential complication following spine surgery in prone position. We report a rare occurrence of cortical blindness following lumbar spine surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goni
authors.forename: Sujit Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Tripathy
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: Tajir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamuk
authors.forename: Bijnya Birajita
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Panda
authors.forename: Shashidhar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bk
keywords: Blindness; Postoperative vision loss; Prone; Spinal injuries; Surgery