Surgical Treatment of a Child With Acute Cortical Blindness Caused by Depressed Skull Fracture

Abstract

Linear skull fractures are relatively common in children, however, it is rarer to see depressed fractures. This report details the case of a 7-year-old boy who was admitted to the emergency department with complete blindness after having experienced an in-car traffic accident. Brain tomography of the patient showed that a large, island-shaped piece of occipital bone was depressed on the visual cortex and superior sagittal sinus in the midline. Presentation of complete loss of vision after an isolated head trauma is very rare, and there are no similar cases in existing literature. The limits of surgical indications for depressed skull fractures are well established in neurosurgical practice. Surgical intervention should be performed immediately, especially in cases where neurological changes develop in the earliest stages after a trauma. The patient underwent emergency surgery to correct the blindness without affecting the vascular neighborhood. The depressed cranium was raised to its original position. The blindness had completely resolved shortly after the patient woke up during the postoperative period.