Lost eyesight after brain tumor removal

[Wolf45]

Lost eyesight in one eye and partial in left.
by Wolf45


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Wolf45
Male, 47 years
Bayonne - NJ
Member since Dec 2008  



, 13 minutes ago
Had operation on 2/20/08 to remove a large memgioma tumor on right side.It was a 10 1/2 procedure and I suffered a stroke near the end of it.   Afterwards I suffered left side weakness.  Eight weeks later I had a second operation to remove rest of tumor, I woke up totally blind in my right eye and lost my periphial in the left.  I asked the surgeon and the chief orthomologist what went wrong and they said that they had no idea what happened.  Will my eyesight ever return over time?, could you shed some light on what could have gone wrong during the operation?  It's nearly seven months after the last operation.

I would appreciate any help you could afford me.  

Thanking you in advance.

Kerry

[rumpled]

In general, the optic nerve is not forgiving IF that was the issue. Has your friend seen a neuro-optho? That is an eye specialist that can do more than a normal eye doc.

Did they determine at least the cause of the loss?

[Canes27]

My  father just had surgery on his brain to remove a tumor that was wrapped around his optic nerve. Before the surgery the optic nerve was damaged and he was able to see after the surgery 8 hours later, he has lost his eye sight. He is seeing things due to the steroids and the meds due to the swelling of the brain is he going to ever be able to see even though his optic nerve was damaged before! Plssss any help he's 72 years old and in the amazing health conditions

[Btorero]

Hi all,

I have a friend that is going through a similar issues. The tumor was removed after the first brain surgery. He lost 85% of his eye sight following the second surgery/procedure that extracted liquid from his spine a few weeks after the initial surgery... Doctors nor specialist can explain what could have happened. I was wondering if any of your loved ones who lost their eyes sight was able to see any improvement? It's been nearly a year since the surgery and my friend feels his sight isn't making any improvement.

[rumpled]

If the surgeon hit the optic nerves, or the tumor involved the optic nerves (was this known before the surgery?) than sorry, this cannot be resolved to my knowledge at this time.

A skilled surgeon is best to avoid issues - but alas too late.

[ViharMN]

A friend's child (5 years old) in India lost eyesight in BOTH the eyes after a brain tumor surgery !

Please let me know if any treatment/surgery helps you regain your vision. I would like to pass on the info the concerned family.

I wish you all the best...

[supereyt]

I found your email exchanges with rumpled & flounder9 while doing research for my friend, Lily. Her experience is very similar to yours, although, I am not sure what kind of tumors she had; she lost both eyesight after brain tumor surgery December 2010.
I would like to find out if you ever regain your right eyesight, and was any treatment helped.
Evie

[flounder9]

I'm really sorry about what has happened to you. I think you are right in that the surgeon just messed up and is now too much of a coward to own up. I would take this up with the hospital because he should be seeing you, not hiding behind his team members.
I hope that your sight improves, do not give up.

[Wolf45]

Thank you,  In my heart I knew just the way the neurosurgeon behaved after he learned that I was blind in that one eye ihat he knew he had screwed up.  The first couple of days he would come to see me and I was really worried and depressed.  After that, the neurosurgeon would only send in members of his team to see how I was doing.

I asked why he had not come to see me himself in 2 weeks and I was told by his team members, that because I was feeling depressed and worried that I bummed him out.  Imagine that, I who was now totally blind in one eye and partially in the other had no right to feel the way I did.

The neurosurgeon that operated on me is also the chairman of neurology at the same hospital.  He sees me every 3 months or so at his office which is located in the same hospital for check ups at no charge

[Karamabo]

I have experienced exactly same thing as yours. I lost my right eye sight, and the doctor was surprised at the beginning. Then they rush to get me out of the hospital. At the beginning the doctor said I will have my vision back in 4-6 weeks, but after I visited him in his office ~ 3 weeks, he told me he believe this situation will be permanent. In the hospital kept changing words before they discharged me of the hospital. One of the doctor said, I have a stroke before the surgery, I told him I was fine and I did not complain of any thing before it, then the surgeon said , no this is not true, there were no stroke. At this point, I am not sure what I am suppose to do, I feel disable I cannot do nothing, and I am waiting on hope from God to cure me. Can you please tell me if there any thing I can do, from your experience. Ty

[rumpled]

Alas, in my research, sadly I also found that if sight did not come back sooner (in a few weeks) then the outlook was dismal. I am so sorry.

Would scar tissue form from the surgery and could that put pressure on the nerve?

As for driving almost until surgery, it is amazing how the body compensates sometimes!

[Wolf45]

The doctors told me that I was almost completely blind in my right eye. I didn't even know. I drove for a living and never had an accident, the doctors couldn't believe it, I was driving up to three days before I went into the hospital. they told me due to the size, the position, and the involvement of the optical nerves, that my vision might improve. After the first operation I got back almost all the vision in my right eye and the vision in my left eye went from 20/60 to 20/20. it was after the second brain surgery that I lost all my sight in the right eye, and lost the periphial vision in my left eye. Dr. Kupersmith, whom I went to see before first operation and since, is one of  the top neuro-opthomologists in the country

I was wondering if in all your research that you have done, have you ever come across anyone who has lost eye sight from brain surgery, getting their sight back?  My neuro surgeon had told me if it didn't come back in 2 weeks it probably wouldn't. The opthomologist told me I had a 3 - 5 month time frame for it to possibly return. Now that it has been almost 7 months the opthomologist said that it is not as good of a chance now.  .

Yes, I do have copies of the surgery reports and pathology report.

[rumpled]

That was some surgery.
Were you told before the surgery that you would get sight back in the right eye? Have you seen a neuro-opthomologist (maybe that was who you saw at lighthouse?)

I think it may be hard to get a response due to insurance. With malpractice now, if a doctor is sued now even once (in some states), they can no longer practice so perhaps no doctor is going to say much as it may mean a career. I was told that from a doctor about my own case which is not as severe as yours. I am disabled from not being treated promptly.

Did you get copies of the surgery report(s) and pathology report(s)?

Jennifer

[Wolf45]

I would like to thank you for replying to my posts and your time spent on research.  

The PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS was as follows:
Large skull base memingioma involving the right middle cranial fossa sellar and suprasellar region posterior fossa and cavernous sinus presenting with severe visual loss in the right eye.

I did not have an endoscopic surgery.  The PROCEDURE PERFORMED was as follows
1) Right frontotemporal crainiotomy
2) Zygomatic osteotomy
3) First stage of the operation, partial removal of rhe tumor and decompression of the optic nerve.

Thank You,

Kerry

[rumpled]

With a tumor entangled around the nerve, removal is pretty iffy in that area. Was the surgery endoscopic?

My experience is pituitary surgeries - they form near the optic nerves and the carotid arteries as well. If the surgeon makes a wrong move, risks are stroke, blindness, or CSF leak. Those are the risks we are told.

Nerve fibers are fibers. There are no blood vessels in them from all that I learned. Any rupture up there would be catastrophic. That explanation does not make sense to me. The rubbing may have merit.

I cannot find many articles.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k1185m1055105514/

[Wolf45]

The optic nerves were  entangled in the tumor, the corratic artery was also entangled . The neurosurgeon said after the second operation that the tumor was sucessfully removed, without damaging or cutting any of the optic nerves.  He did'nt understand why I could'nt see, He was the most surprised out of everyone.

RE: getting second opinion, besides the neurosurgeon and the neuropthomologist, I went to Lighthouse International where they gave me a thorough examination and said the eye and all behind the eye looked good, the eye pressure was also good.  They did'nt see any damage to cause loss of vision.

One of the surgeon's team members said that possibly one of the nerves  could have been rubbed or that a blood vessel ruptured inside one of the nerves.

Thank You for replying.

[rumpled]

Were either of the tumors near the optic nerves or near the occipitial region of the brain? The current doctors have no idea - have you gone for a second opinion?