Occipital lobe infarction after open heart surgery.

The most common permanent neuro-ophthalmologic complication of cardiopulmonary bypass surgery is visual loss. Bilateral lower altitudinal visual field defects were documented in a patient who noted blurred vision following open heart surgery. A difference of opinion existed as to whether the field defects were due to retina-optic nerve or occipital lobe lesions. Two points are emphasized in this report: 1) the field defects were much easier to define on the tangent screen than on Goldman perimetry, and 2) occipital coronal high resolution CT scan confirmed bilateral upper bank calcarine cortex infarctions in this patient. Occipital coronal, thin-section, high-resolution computed tomographic scans are helpful in studying patients with occipital lobe visual field defects.