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CC BY 4.0 · Rev Bras Ortop (Sao Paulo) 2024; 59(S 02): e259-e263
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1791188
Relato de Caso

Visual Loss after Scoliosis Surgery: What Do Surgeons and Patients Need to Know? Three Case Reports

Article in several languages: português | English
Alderico Girão Campos de Barros
1   Grupo de Cirurgia da Coluna, Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
,
Augusto Ribeiro de Jesus Oliveira
1   Grupo de Cirurgia da Coluna, Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
,
Lucas Rocha Cavalvanti
1   Grupo de Cirurgia da Coluna, Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
,
Luis Eduardo Carelli Teixeira da Silva
1   Grupo de Cirurgia da Coluna, Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
,
João Antonio Matheus Guimarães 
2   Programa de Pós-graduação, Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
› Author Affiliations Financial Support The authors declare that they did not receive financial support from agencies in the public, private, or non-profit sectors to conduct the present study.
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Abstract

Visual deficit after spinal surgery is rare but tragic. The main causes include external eye injury, cortical blindness, central retinal artery occlusion, and ischemic optic neuropathy. In scoliosis surgery, this complication potentially arises from prolonged surgical time, high blood loss, prone position, hydroelectrolytic imbalance, and cerebrospinal fluid loss.

In 849 scoliosis correction surgeries, 3 patients developed postoperative visual deficits: 2 achieved complete visual acuity recovery, but 1 remained with partial sequelae.

There are four causes of postoperative amaurosis: ischemic optic neuropathy, central retinal artery occlusion, external eye injury, and cortical blindness. Since the prevention of this complication cannot be assured, it is essential to explain the risk of visual deficits to patients undergoing scoliosis surgery, who must sign the informed consent form.

Visual loss after spinal surgery for scoliosis correction is a rare but severe and, sometimes, irreversible complication. The surgical team must know about this possibility in order to adopt preventive measures and reduce its incidence.

Keywords

amaurosis - blindness, cortical - spine/surgery - scoliosis/complications

Work carried out at the Instituto Nacional de Traumatologia e Ortopedia (INTO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.




Publication History

Received: 16 January 2024

Accepted: 25 July 2024

Article published online:
27 December 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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