Acute onset of blindness during labor: report of a case of transient cortical blindness in association with HELLP syndrome

The coincidence of HELLP syndrome and cortical blindness is an uncommon but very dramatic event, for the patient as well as the obstetrician. This rep ort describes the first case of HELLP-syndrome-associated cortical blindnes s occuring suddenly in the third stage of labour. There were only modest co rrelates of cortical blindness in cerebral CT, MRI and angiography findings , but no signs of a posterior leucoencephalopathy syndrome. Mother and baby were discharged from hospital to outpatient care in good health on the 12t h day. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.