visual field troubles~LTL resection
 

Has anyone gotten homonymous quandrantanopsia from their lobectomy?

I don't recall if I had this effect from my surgery, or if it is from the traumatic brain injury I incurred one year after surgery. Doctor says that my blind spot is there because of the brain (since it's on both sides). It is more pronounced on my right side than my left, but is an absence of sight in the upper right area of visual field. Just curious if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Shez

Hi Shez,
After I had my Right temporal lobectomy my vision got really bad I found out that what can cause it is a lesion in the brain if the right side is worse then you may have a lesion on the left side of your brain. Also your opticcal lobe where your eyesight is may be affected from the surgery. You should let your neuro know about this and they can do visual field testing on you to find out what's going on. I had to have this type of testing done before and after my surgery.
TBI can also cause poor vision along with any AED's you take I know that when I was on tegretol my eyesight got really bad. I wish you only the best and May God Bless You!

Sue

I had surgery in 1998 and in 2009 had my eyes examined for glasses. The optometrist wondered if I had early stages of glaucoma and referred me to an opthamologist who did visual field testing. After the testing, the opthamologist asked me if I had ever had a stroke. I am not aware of any symptoms of stroke and it was never mentioned to me as having occurred during surgery. However, she did find that I had an area of deficit on one side, the right, called Pie-In-The-Sky. I was not recognizing the lights flashing in an area resembling a quarter of a pie. My surgery was on the right. She ordered an MRI of the eyes and brain and didn't find anything unusual but did say the neurosurgeon did a good job. All we can figure is that it was from the surgery. I was not at all aware of it until the testing found it and have not noticed a visual deficit. I googled the term you posted and this is one article.
http://www.supereyecare.com/residents/VFPart4.pdf From that article:
' “pie-in-the-sky” homonymous quadrantanopia from anterior temporal lobe lesion.'
We both had an anterior temporal lobectomy, so it seems to fit. I also hav an area of numbness inside my mouth on the right that includes the side of my tongue and upper hard palate. Sometimes that is more noticeable. Since on the right too, I wonder if it too is from my surgery. Tattoo

Hi Sue,

I do vaguely recall the neurosurgeon warning of this possible effect prior to surgery. However, I don't remember bumping into things until 2 or 3 years ago. Lemme think...my surgery was in March of 2006. That means that the TBI occurred in March of 2007.

I have made an appointment with my epileptologist due to a complex partial and regular simple partials. I haven't been on any AED's for about 1 year, due to poor seizure control and the hard side effects of many meds. I figured that I'd just bring the O.D. diagnosis & prognosis to my appointment. The O.D. plans to re-do the testing in about one year to see if the area unseen remains the same.

Thanks for posting back ~ take care!
Shez

Hey Tattoo2,

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I really don't recall the doctor saying that there was an effect on my eyesight when I had testing after the surgery. I have tried looking up the homonymous quadrantanopia online, but couldn't find any references. Thanks for the link! I do vaguely recall that term now: "Pie in the Sky". That's right.

The same space being absent from vision in both eyes is pretty weird. I've bumped into walls more than a few times. I've also pushed people in wheelchairs a little too close to the right wall. Ugh! I haven't noticed any change in my sense of taste or palette ~ but I have lost almost all sense of smell. I recall that those senses are closely related. I can smell a very small amount of things strongly, but most smells can't be detected by me. And a few can be lightly detected after pointed out and focused upon.

Thank you Tattoo!
Shez

HI Shez,

I too had a right temporal lobectomy back in 2002. My surgeon warned me that most likely I would lose some if not all of my peripheral vision in my right eye. He was right. Im not sure if this is the "pie in the sky" you are referring to, but that is the effect I have after surgery, just as predicted.
No change in taste except for with the Topamax I take, chocolate tastes weird as do a few other things, nothing major though. Smells are still normal.
Hearing seems to be heightened.