Visual disturbances occurring as a complication of intranasal ethmosphenoidectomy are often the consequences of injury to the optic canal or optic nerve at the posterior wall of the ethmoid sinus or superior wall of the sphenoid sinus. The authors presented a case where severe visual disturbance occurred on the following day of intranasal ethmoidectomy without injury to the optic canal. The visual disturbance was successfully treated by decompression of the optic nerve.
The authors discussed that mechanism of such delayed visual disturbance might be a result of an interrupted blood supply within the optic canal due to surgical intervention around the optic canal, and presented a treatment method for such rare complications.
