Posters

Postoperative ischemic optic neuritis after hip and shoulder arthroplasty: two case reports

Poster Details

First Author: J.Ruiz-Colecha SPAIN

Co Author(s):    G. Janarek   J. Campello   J. Belda-Sanchis   K. Schargel   J. Koszel   J. Placeres

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To report two unusual cases of ischemic optic neuritis after hip and shoulder arthroplasty under general anesthesia. One of them is the first posterior isquemic optic neuritis report after shoulder surgery up to our knowledge.

Setting:

Hospital de Torrevieja (Alicante. Spain)

Methods:

Case reports and review of the literature reporting also data of the anesthesia period.

Results:

The first case is a 74 year old man with postoperative visual loss right after awakening from a hip arthroplasty replacement. He had a bilateral visual loss due to an anterior ischemic optic neuritis with no vascular risk factors associated, probably due to intraoperative blood loss and short periods of drop of his blood pressure. The second case is also a postoperative visual loss because of a posterior ischemic optic neuritis in a single eye patient that underwent a shoulder arthroplasty. To our knowledge there are only three cases reported of ischemic optic neuritis after shoulder surgery and none of them due to a posterior ischemia. This patient had history of vascular risk factors as hypertension and diabetes.

Conclusions:

Perioperative visual loss after hip and shoulder surgery is a very rare but fatal complication after non-ocular surgery with a poor visual prognosis that is difficult to prevent but that both anesthetists and surgeons should be aware of and patients should be informed. FINANCIAL INTEREST: NONE