Transient cortical blindness as a complication of posterior spinal surgery in a pediatric patient.

Abstract

Postoperative vision loss after spinal surgery is a well-known but devastating complication that may result from direct ocular ischemia, embolism to the central retinal artery, ischemic optic neuropathy, or occipital cortical ischemia. The occipital cortex is situated in the posterior border zone of the middle and posterior cerebral arteries and is susceptible to ischemic damage. Transient cortical blindness as a cause of postoperative vision loss has never been reported after spine surgery in a child. We report an 11-year-old female patient with muscular dystrophy who underwent posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation under hypotensive anesthesia for scoliosis who developed transient cortical blindness.