title: Improvement of long-term blindness caused by compression from inner-third sphenoid wing meningioma after optic canal decompression: An extremely rare case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There has been no previous case report of a patient whose visual acuity improved after long-term blindness caused by tumor invasion into the optic canal.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 65-year-old Asian woman presented with a 6-month history of blindness caused by a meningioma located on the inner third of the sphenoid ridge. An operation was performed to prevent further tumor invasion into the cavernous sinus and contralateral optic nerve. During surgery, optic canal decompression was performed using an epidural approach. Subtotal removal of the tumor was achieved. Two days after the surgery, her left visual acuity recovered from blindness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Normally, long-term blindness caused by optic nerve compression by a brain tumor is regarded as irreversible, and even a surgical excision of the optic nerve is performed in some cases. However, because we experienced a case in which the patient recovered from long-term blindness after optic canal decompression, we believe that this surgical procedure should definitely be considered as an option.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Keio University Hospital, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Keio University Hospital, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Keio University Hospital, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horikoshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Keio University Hospital, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshida
keywords: Blindness; inner-third sphenoid wing meningioma; optic canal decompression