Brain Tumor

[nccarol]

my boyriend had a brain tumor removed off brain stem a year ago. he aquired superior oblique palsy from damage to the third cranial nerve. They waited to see if it repaired itself it did not. 3 months ago they opereated on his good eye to align it to the bad one. ot as successful as we hoped but not double vision anymore. Now six days ago his is having vision impairment again and headaches.We will go back to doctor but if anyone knows any information on why this is happening please let me know.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Unfortunately brain tumors can re-occur quickly if they are large, aggressively growing, incompletely removed or located very close to important parts of the body.

While its difficult to understand if one eye turns in you can straighten the eyes by operating on either eye. The surgeon would have been in the best position to determine if it would be better to operate on one or the other eye. In general if one eye has been operated on many surgeons prefer to operated on "virgin" eye muscles that have not had previous surgery. The response is more predictable.

JCH III MD

[nccarol]

Didn't know it was the fourth sorry. His tumor was epidermmoid which they said was slow growing but could it be back that soon? Also was wondering was it better to operate on the good eye to realign to the bad eye? So can they just recorrect it again sugically or is too much tampering surgically not good?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

First of all a superior oblique palsy is not a third cranial nerve problem, it's a fourth cranial nerve problem.

Second it extremely important that you return to your neurosurgeon and ophthalmologist as soon as possible. It is important to make certain the brain tumor has not re-occured. It is also not unusual for the double vision to re-occur after that type of problem and that type of surgery.

Please act quickly.

JCH III MD Eye Physician & Surgeon