A 55-year-old female was referred to the Department of Ophthalmology with complaints of bilateral loss of vision. She had undergone subtotal gastrectomy with gastrojejunostomy and lymphadenectomy for poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma in the antropyloric region the day before. On the first postoperative day, she complained of generalised weakness, drowsiness, altered sensorium, and acute, painless, bilateral loss of vision. Ocular examination revealed visual acuity as no perception of light, bilaterally, and normal pupillary light reflexes. Anterior and posterior segment examination was within normal limits. This clinical presentation of altered sensorium and cortical blindness along with characteristic radiological findings (hyperintensity on T2/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequence involving the bilateral parieto-occipital lobe extending in asymmetric fashion to the bilateral cerebellum, brainstem, and thalami predominantly involving the white matter with few areas of diffusion restriction on diffusion-weighted imaging sequence predominantly on the left side with gyriform pattern) confirmed the diagnosis of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). In cancer patients, PRES has been reported in patients on chemotherapy regimen or two weeks after surgery for gastric cancer. Here, we want to draw attention to the fact that PRES may develop in the immediate postoperative period of gastric cancer surgery, as seen in our case.
Keywords: chemotherapy; cortical blindness; gastric cancer surgery; immediate postoperative period; posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome.
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