PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ingo Kleiter
AU  - Ralf Luerding
AU  - Gerhard Diendorfer
AU  - Helga Rek
AU  - Ulrich Bogdahn
AU  - Berthold Schalke
TI  - A lightning strike to the head causing a visual cortex defect with simple and complex visual hallucinations
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp.2006.097642
DP  - 2007 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 423--426
VI  - 78
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/78/4/423.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/78/4/423.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2007 Apr 01; 78
AB  - 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.