[Restitution of visual function in two cases of post-anoxic occipital blindness: a long term clinical study (author's...

Two cases of post-anoxic occipital blindness, one in an adult and the other in a child, are presented. A quantitative and qualitative semiological analysis was performed using tests described in a previous paper. Mechanisms underlying restitution of visual function were chronologically followed up over three years of rehabilitation. In both cases there was a noteworthy improvement in the visual function, related to the beginning of rehabilitation therapy. Five years of an almost complete cerebral blindness had preceded the improvement in case 2. Spatial construction acquisition and ontogenetic data are compared with the present data. It is suggested that there is a similar loss of activation in Broca's aphasia and cerebral visual disturbances of occipital origin.