Back Surgery and Blindness

Blindness is the lack of visual sense due to damages that might occur on the eyes components, other issues that might affect the optical nerves or congenital malformations. Divided into two categories, partial or total, the blindness may be acquired or can be congenital. Also, blindness can occur upon malpractice in various surgeries interventions, such as back surgery.

1. Causes
2. Risk factors
3. Home care
4. Professional care
5. Blindness as a complication of diseases
6. Blindness as a symptom
7. Back surgery and blindness

 Causes of blindness

The following statistics provide different data on the causes of blindness:

• common eye disease: 97% of the cases of blindness result from common eye diseases.
• diabetic retinopathy: 0.8% of adults suffering from diabetes seeking from specialized clinics for diabetes suffer from blindness, and besides that between 12,000 and 24,000 of new cases of blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy are reported annually in the US.
• glaucoma: more than 20,000 patients remain without sight because of glaucoma, annually; 120,000 patients are currently blind due to glaucoma in the US, only.
• Macular degeneration: 104,000 cases of blindness due to age-related macular degeneration are specifically reported.
• uveitis: 30,000 patients are blind because of uveitis.

As easily observed, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults aged between 20 and 74 years. The retina is a thin membrane located in the back of the eye. It consists of cells that provide the visual image and send it to the brain. Retinal diseases including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal detachment.

Worldwide, the leading causes of blindness are cataract, leprosy, vitamin A deficiency, onchocerciasis, or trachoma.

Causes for the loss of central vision:

• darkening the visual field
• cataracts
• macular degeneration
• optic neuritis
• multiple sclerosis
• brain tumors
• brain aneurysm

Cause for the loss of peripheral vision:

• darkening the visual field
• retinal detachment

Other causes for the loss of vision:

• injuries to the eye
• macular degeneration
• glaucoma
• certain eye diseases
• retinopathy
• diabetic retinopathy
• stroke
• multiple sclerosis
• compression of the optic nerve
• intracranial hypertension
• bilateral papilledema
• cerebral infarction bilateral occipital lobe
• blockage of blood vessels
• complications from preterm birth
• complications from eye surgery
• amblyopia
• optic neuritis
• Tay-Sachs disease
• retinitis pigmentosa
• retinoblastoma
• poisoning
• optic glioma
• back surgery and blindness
• optical surgery malpractice

2. Risk Factors of blindness
   

Blindness risk factors do not seem to be a direct cause of it but there are only associated with blindness.

Having a predisposition to its installation increases the risk of blindness, but does not always lead to blindness. Conversely, the absence of risk factors or eye protection does not guarantee that a person will not suffer from blindness.

3. Home Care

The possibility that the patient suffering from blindness, total or partial blindness, to operate independently in activities such as dressing up, eating, safely living, must be calculated because it is an extremely important thing.

There are services available that provide training, support, and even professional staff who help the blind people to improve their quality of life.

4. Professional Care

Sudden loss of vision, will always be an emergency, even if it’s not usually a life-threatening condition.

Contact an ophthalmologist or go to the emergency room of an ophthalmology hospital immediately when your vision is impaired.

Most diseases that lead to blindness can be cured only if discovered and treated in time, in their early stages.

Professionals will conduct a complete and thorough eye examination, and the treatment regime will depend on the underlying cause.

5. Blindness as a complication of diseases

Conditions that could lead to partial blindness or total vision loss are macular degeneration, Alpers syndrome, Batten disease, Behcet’s disease, blepharospasm (commonly benign), cataracts, narrow-angle glaucoma, glaucoma, Cytomegalovirus in children, keratitis, leprosy, multiple sclerosis, ocular herpes, open-angle glaucoma, retinal detachment, retinopathy, retinopathy in premature infants, Sandhoff Boilor  disease, sarcoidosis, syphilis, arteritis, trachoma (chronic conjunctivitis caused by chlamydia or trachomatis), Usher syndrome, Vitamin A deficiency, Von Hippel, Lindau.

6. Blindness as a symptom

Loss of vision is a symptom of some health conditions and it may manifest as it follows.

Sudden blindness (always considered medical emergencies)

• eye lesion
• obstruction of an eye artery
• obstruction of a retinal artery
• obstruction of a retinal vein
• arteritis
• retinal detachment
• fugitive amaurosis (transitive disorders of view)
• stroke
• migraines
• optic neuritis
• vitreous bleeding
• acute glaucoma
• methyl alcohol poisoning
• hysteria
• brain damage or brain tumors

Progressive blindness

• cataracts
• macular degeneration
• diabetic retinopathy
• glaucoma
• ocular hypertension
• choroiditis
• retinitis pigmentosa
• trachoma

7. Back surgery and blindness

A postoperative blindness occurs especially in back surgery or back surgery malpractice but its rate of incidence is really small, of up to 1%.

A special case of back surgery and blindness was recorded on a 38 years old man who became blind after a back surgery for posterior spinal decompression and screw instrumentation for a vertebra fracture.

His medical history was not suggesting any possible neurological problems, diabetes, hypertension, or past vision impairment episodes.

Another well-known back surgery and blindness case was registered on a 60 years old man. The man was suffering from back pains and presented to the hospital for a spinal intervention.

The man was suffering from spinal lesion caused by an invasive metastatic and had a medical history of thyroid carcinoma.

In his case the blindness was partial, only one eye being affected, and the doctors blamed on his medical condition and history for the blindness, so it is not clear if the back surgery caused blindness in this particular case.

Postoperative vision loss is a rare surgery risk factor for blindness caused by ischemic optic neuropathy, retinal vascular occlusion, or cortical blindness (which the rarest cause).