[Ophthalmological symptoms of visual tract lesions in craniocerebral injuries]

Craniocerebral injuries are known to involve the visual tract in 2-5% of cases. Fifty-nine patients aged 5 to 68 with visual tract involvement in craniocerebral injury were examined in N. N. Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Unilateral optic nerve involvement was found in 48 patients, involvement of the chiasm and/or both optic nerves in 11. Involvement of a single optic nerve was associated with vision acuity reduction, 30 patients becoming blind or virtually blind, and with various defects of the visual field. Traumatic injury to the chiasm manifested as a rule by the asymmetric chiasmal syndrome. Follow-up of the patients in the acute period of craniocerebral injury showed that paling of the optic disc manifested in various periods after the moment of the injury, from 3-4 days to 1 month, this depending on the localization of the injury and its distance from the posterior pole of the eye. Besides visual disturbances and ophthalmoscopic changes, oculomotor disorders were found which were caused by traumatic impairment of the oculomotor nerves (in the orbit or skull) and muscles. Transcutaneous electrostimulation of the injured optic nerves was sufficiently effective, its efficacy directly depending on the period elapsed since the injury, excepting blind or virtually blind patients.