open access

Vol 51, No 6 (2017)
Case reports
Submitted: 2016-09-28
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Visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction

Aleksandra Loster-Niewińska1, Edyta Dziadkowiak1, Justyna Chojdak-Łukasiewicz1, Anna Zimny2, Bogusław Paradowski1
DOI: 10.1016/j.pjnns.2017.07.007
·
Neurol Neurochir Pol 2017;51(6):504-506.
Affiliations
  1. Department of Neurology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland
  2. Department of General Radiology, Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, Wroclaw Medical University, st. Borowska 213, Wroclaw, Poland

open access

Vol 51, No 6 (2017)
Case reports
Submitted: 2016-09-28

Abstract

Background

The most frequent clinical presentation of occipital or visual tract lesion is hemianopsia or quadrantanopsia. However, damage to the primary or secondary visual cortex can also manifest as visual hallucinations (photopsiae or complex phenomena). We report visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction based on a study of a patient with a history of recent head injury.

Case presentation

We report a 61-year-old man with a history of recent head injury presented with a headache of two weeks duration. He was complaining of transient visual abnormalities, which he described as impaired ability to recognize faces, dark spots moving in the visual field and distorted contours of an objects. Clinical examination showed a balance disorder with no evidence of visual deficit. During further observation the patient started to experience more complex visual and sensory phenomena of: waving of the ceiling, clouds that he could form and feel, he had an impression of incorrect sizes of given objects, he could see a nonexistent pack of cigarettes and the character from the arcade game Pac-Man “eating” an existing drip stand.

Conclusions

The patient mentioned above possessing simple and complex visual and somatosensory hallucinations and illusions in the course of venous stroke. A possible mechanism involves irritation of cortical centers responsible for visual processing.

Abstract

Background

The most frequent clinical presentation of occipital or visual tract lesion is hemianopsia or quadrantanopsia. However, damage to the primary or secondary visual cortex can also manifest as visual hallucinations (photopsiae or complex phenomena). We report visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction based on a study of a patient with a history of recent head injury.

Case presentation

We report a 61-year-old man with a history of recent head injury presented with a headache of two weeks duration. He was complaining of transient visual abnormalities, which he described as impaired ability to recognize faces, dark spots moving in the visual field and distorted contours of an objects. Clinical examination showed a balance disorder with no evidence of visual deficit. During further observation the patient started to experience more complex visual and sensory phenomena of: waving of the ceiling, clouds that he could form and feel, he had an impression of incorrect sizes of given objects, he could see a nonexistent pack of cigarettes and the character from the arcade game Pac-Man “eating” an existing drip stand.

Conclusions

The patient mentioned above possessing simple and complex visual and somatosensory hallucinations and illusions in the course of venous stroke. A possible mechanism involves irritation of cortical centers responsible for visual processing.

Get Citation

Keywords

Visual/somatosensory hallucinations, Visual/somatosensory illusions, Venous stroke, Irritation of cortical centers

About this article
Title

Visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction

Journal

Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska

Issue

Vol 51, No 6 (2017)

Pages

504-506

Page views

354

Article views/downloads

348

DOI

10.1016/j.pjnns.2017.07.007

Bibliographic record

Neurol Neurochir Pol 2017;51(6):504-506.

Keywords

Visual/somatosensory hallucinations
Visual/somatosensory illusions
Venous stroke
Irritation of cortical centers

Authors

Aleksandra Loster-Niewińska
Edyta Dziadkowiak
Justyna Chojdak-Łukasiewicz
Anna Zimny
Bogusław Paradowski

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