Postoperative Visual Loss After Nonocular Surgery: A Case Report

This case involves a patient with coronary artery disease and oropharyngeal cancer, previously treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, who underwent a cervical lymph node excision. Postoperatively, the patient developed acute, painless, and monocular vision loss. Postoperative visual loss following nonocular surgery is most commonly caused by ischemic optic neuropathy or central retinal artery occlusion. In this case, visual loss resulted from emboli originating in the common carotid artery leading to retinal artery occlusion. The underlying cause was radiation arteritis, a complication of neck radiation therapy, resulting in accelerated atherosclerosis and plaque formation in the ipsilateral common carotid artery.