Anton’s Syndrome and Cortical Blindness.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Anton’s syndrome is a condition where the patient is unaware of being blind and denies the problem even when it is pointed out to him. On the contrary, in cortical blindness patient is aware of his blindness and does not deny it. In both, bilateral lesions of the occipital lobes are seen. Case presentation We present two cases of cortical blindness, Case 1 being consistent with diagnosis of Anton’s syndrome where patient denied of her blindness. Both cases revealed bilateral occipital lobe infarcts. Conclusions: Cerebrovascular disease is the most common cause of cortical blindness. These occur as a result of successive infarctions as seen in Case 1 or from a single embolic or thrombotic occlusion as seen in Case 2. First case is Anton’s syndrome with patient denying blindness, whereas second case is cortical blindness. It is due to involvement of other cortical centers in Anton’s syndrome that patient denies blindness.