TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2007//
TI  - A lightning strike to the head causing a visual cortex defect with simple and complex visual hallucinations
JO  - Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
A1  - Kleiter, Ingo
A1  - Luerding, Ralf
A1  - Diendorfer, Gerhard
A1  - Rek, Helga
A1  - Bogdahn, Ulrich
A1  - Schalke, Berthold
SP  - 423
EP  - 426
VL  - 78
IS  - 4
N2  - The case of a 23-year-old mountaineer who was hit by a lightning strike to the occiput causing a large central visual field defect and bilateral tympanic membrane ruptures is described. Owing to extreme agitation, the patient was set to a drug-induced coma for 3 days. After extubation, she experienced simple and complex visual hallucinations for several days, but otherwise recovered largely. Neuropsychological tests revealed deficits in fast visual detection tasks and non-verbal learning, and indicated a right temporal lobe dysfunction, consistent with a right temporal focus on electroencephalography. Four months after the accident, she developed a psychological reaction consisting of nightmares with reappearance of the complex visual hallucinations and a depressive syndrome. Using the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection network, a meteorological system for lightning surveillance, the exact geographical location and nature of the lightning flash were retrospectively retraced.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-3050
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2006.097642
ID  - ref1
ER  -