A case of Balint syndrome

J Korean Neurol Assoc > Volume 15(4); 1997 > Article

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association 1997;15(4): 900-906.

Balint 증후군 1례

최성혜, 나덕렬, 정필욱, 이광호

성균관대학교 의대 삼성서울병원 신경과, 서울대학교 의대 신경과

A case of Balint syndrome

SH Choi, M.D., DL Na, M.D., PW Jung, M.D., KH Lee, M.D.

Dept. of Neurology, College of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Dept. of Neurology,k College of Medicine, Seoul National University

Abstract

Balint's syndrome consists of the following triad: psychic gaze paralysis or ocular apraxia, optic ataxia, simultanagnosia. We describe a patient with bilateral parieto-occipital infarctions presenting with the above triad. A 63-year-old woman was admitted due to sudden onset of visual disturbance. Her eyes wandered until, by chance, the objects fell into central vision, but then she had difficulty in maintaining fixation under the visual guidance. She failed to grasp objects presented in front of her with precision. Although she was able to describe parts of pictures, she was unable to see them as a whole, in addition, these symptoms were accompanied by apperceptive visual agnosia, prosopagnosia, and color agnosia. Brain MRI showed bilateral parieto-occipital watershed infarction and left occipital cerebromalacia. Following examination after 10 days demonstrated complete resolution of ocular apraxia and optic ataxia with residual simultanagnosia.