Four cases of bi-temporal hemianopsia / by A. Hill Griffith.

  • Griffiths, A. Hill.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Four cases of bi-temporal hemianopsia / by A. Hill Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    3/8 (page 3)
    FOUR CASES OF BI-TEMPORAL HEMIANOPSIA This form of hemianopsia is caused by interference with the fibres of the optic nerves supplying the nasal side of each retina, and when the defect occurs in the field of each eye, as in the cases I am about to describe, we can have no hesitation in locating the intracranial disease at the optic chiasma where these fibres cross, and hence we may term this the localising form of hemianopsia, in contradistinction to the homonymous variety in which the exact position of the lesion can seldom be diagnosed, and then only by the presence of other signs. Central vision is always impaired from the first, and often seriously so; whereas in the homonymous form it is very seldom much reduced, and is usually normal. The bad sight, and characteristic defect in the visual field, may be the only symptoms present, but we may also have paralyses of eye muscles and loss of smell, from pressure on the oculo-motor and olfactory nerves; and total amaurosis of one or both eyes is common from secondary atrophy of the optic nerves. Among the general conditions noted in some of these cases have been deposit of fat, polyuria, increase of the amount of urine passed, glycosuria, and great thirst. Cessation of menstruation has been several times observed. In regard to the relative frequency of temporal hemianopsia, Mauthner's estimate is about 1 per cent of all cases of hemianopsia, Forster's 23 per cent, and my own experience, 4 in 27, about 11 per cent, so that we see that it is a comparatively rare form. Wilbrand has collected and reviewed the symptoms of all the cases published up to the date of his paper,^ 32 cases in all; and the same writer in a later paper^ refers to other five later cases. Berry,^ in a very interesting paper, to which I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness, records two cases, and refers to one new case by Nieden, not included in the list of those I have referred to. Ross* records a very interesting and most typical case, and at the Man- chester Medical Society, December, 1883, showed a case complicated with paralysis of eye muscles; lastly, McHardy^ and Hansell,^ of Phila- delphia, each records a case. These, along with my own four cases bring the total up to 48; but a large number of the cases collected by 1 Ueber Hemianopsic und ihv Verhiiltniss, zur topischcn Diagnose des Geliirnkrankhciten, ISSl. Ophthalmatrisclie Beitrage zur Diagnostik der Gehinikrauklieitci), 1SS4. Temporal Hemianopia, with two cases.—Ophth. Reciev:, June, 1SS4. ■» Diseases of the Nervous System, ISSo, Vol. II., p. 5So. 8 Trans. Opth. Soaj., 18S1. « Noticed in Knapp's Arcliives of Uplitlial, \ol. XIII.