Vascular lesions affecting the visual pathways.

Abstract

There is no better means of acquiring an understanding of the subject of neuro-ophthalmology than by firsthand examination of pathologic specimens. For the ophthalmologist it is a most enlightening experience to see the great frequency with which sections of the brain contain lesions that affect, in a variety of interesting ways, the visual pathways. The autopsy material on which this discussion is based was selected by me from a large number of brain sections inspected at the neuropathology conferences conducted by Dr. J. M. Nielsen, of Los Angeles. The present discussion will deal primarily with involvement of the visual pathways through lesions in the temporal isthmus and in the occipital lobes. When the ophthalmologist is confronted with a cerebral defect producing a homonymous hemianopia without optic atrophy or impairment of the pupillary light reflex, he knows that the lesion is situated somewhere posterior to the lateral geniculate bodies. But for