Visual loss after spine surgery

Sudden painless loss of vision following spine surgery: lessons learnt in darkness

A 26-year-old male driver presented with a history of pain in the neck for the past 1 week following trauma due to a road traffic accident. The patient had no neurological deficit. He had type 1 diabetes and was on regular oral hypoglycemics. After radiological investigations, the patient was diagnosed to have traumatic AO Spine Classification type C translational injury involving anterolisthesis of C6 over C7. After a detailed preoperative assessment, the patient was taken up for surgery. The patient underwent posterior stabilisation with instrumentation from C5 to T2. On extubation from anaesthesia, he immediately complained of complete painless loss of this vision in his left eye. Ophthalmological investigations attributed the cause to be due to central retinal artery occlusion. The patient was discharged with reassurance on the 20th postoperative day with minimal improvement in his vision and at 6-month follow-up, his vision improved to 1/60 and was advised for close follow-up.

Practice Advisory for Perioperative Visual Loss Associated with Spine Surgery 2019: An Updated Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Perioperative Visual Loss, the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society, and the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care

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