[Blast injury. Acute blindness caused by thoracoabdominal compression trauma]

Blindness can be the consequence of trauma, which until now had only been described in cases involving direct facial or cranial trauma. In our case a 53-year-old street worker became irreversibly blind after a thoracoabdominal compression trauma. The investigations performed were inconclusive regarding the cause of blindness. We postulate a massive increase in venous blood pressure with capillary stasis and consequent optic nerve damage. Fat emboli syndrome or posterior ischemic optic neuropathy could be causes, but unrealistic for this case. It still comes into question why such a mechanism has not been seen in other blast injury cases. In the end, the additional factor that resulted here in complete irreversible blindness remains unclear.