Cortical blindness following meningitis due to Hemophilus influenzae type B

Cortical Blindness in Infancy: A Follow-Up Study

“…Except for cases of cortical blind ness caused by infections as in meningitis, or head injuries, the etiology is mostly a vascu lar event leading to hypoxia or anoxia with possible necrosis of the tissues [2,5,8]. In children, damage confined to the occipital lobe alone and consequent cortical blindness as in case 1 is rare.…”

“…In children, damage confined to the occipital lobe alone and consequent cortical blindness as in case 1 is rare. Usually, the damage of the brain is more extensive and is associated with cerebral palsy [3,5,6] as in cases 2 ,3 ,4 and 5 and even with severe mental retarda tion as in case 6.…”

“…This should be con firmed by electrophysiological examination: the electroretinogram (ERG) is intact while the visual evoked potential (VEP) is mostly pathological (3,4]. Recovery of vision, com plete or partial, was mostly described in older children and was related to the serious ness of the event [1,[5][6][7].…”

The Apparently Blind Infant

“…76,262,264,318 These include trauma (accidental and nonaccidental), 217,229 neurodegenerative disorders, hypoglycemia, 425 hemodialysis, 415 infectious disorders, 63 encephalitis/meningitis, 4,5,146,439,531,562 hydrocephalus, 17,96,371 and seizures. 328 The major causes of cortical visual loss are discussed below.…”

Brain injury and the eye

“…5 Historically, a wide range of aetiologies accounted for visual impairment associated with brain injury in children. These included hypoglycemia, 6 haemodialysis, 7 hydrocephalus, [8][9][10] trauma [11][12][13] (accidental but much more commonly and tragically non-accidental), seizures, 14 neurodegenerative disorders, 15 encephalitis/meningitis, [16][17][18][19][20] and other infectious disorders. 21 However, at present, the single most common cause of visually significant brain injury in children is perinatal hypoxia ischemia.…”