Seizures & Loss of Sight Update 7/31/02
We believe the loss of sight was probably tied to the seizures. The seizures are a direct result of the brain lesions, we are not 100% sure which one(s) caused the seizures.Seizures
About a week after we went into the hospital for Ben's eyelid swelling, it became obvious that Ben was having seizures. His seizures were characterized by a total lack of movement and responsiveness. Noise, touch, movement or even pinching him would not get a response. His body would be completely limp.His seizures became progressively worse in frequency and in duration. We tracked the total number of seizures in a day, average seizure duration, and the actual time he spent in seizure. You can see the influence of the brain biopsy surgery and the anti-seizure medication shown in green. The word 'surgery' indicated on the graphs refer to the 4/20/02 brain biopsy surgery - this was added because the removal of some of the large lesion may have impacted (decreased) the seizure activity.
His seizures did not show up on EEG studies.
He was put on Phenobarbital (an anti-seizure barbiturate) and after a few days he did not have any more seizures and he has regained all of his sight. As of 7/31/02 he has not had any seizures.
Loss of Sight
On the evening of Friday the 19th, we noticed that he became completely unresponsive at all times to any visual stimulus. He became fussy. He would not reach out and grab anything. All hand movements were undirected. You could move something quickly toward him, right up to his eyes, and he would not blink or show any reaction.There could be several causes for the loss of sight:
1) Problem with eyes themselves - not likely because both eyes involved. Ruled out by Dr. ONeil.
2) Post eye swelling - not likely because both eyes involved.
3) Tumor in the brain causing direct interference with visual process - No evidence, may have one tumor in the path of the optical nerve, but no tumors in the occipital lobe. Tumor that is in the path of the right optic nerve would be expected to interfere with vision in left field from both eyes only, not total eyesight.
4) Resulting from seizure - postictal - Dr. Kaplen does not believe this is the cause, but vision returned after seizures stopped (due to Phenobarbital).
5) Pressure in the brain - Vision returned two days after surgery and swelling reduced (confounded with anti-seizure medication).Ben has not suffered any more loss-of-sight episodes since his placement on Phenobarbital.