Yellow-Coloured Left Homonymous Visual Hemi-Field after Ischaemic Stroke

Abstract

We report a patient’s challenging case who suffered two acute ischaemic strokes, first in the right occipital lobe and later in the right dorsolateral thalamus (with affection of the lateral geniculate nucleus) who developed a yellow-tinted left homonymous visual hemi-field. No previously described case matched our peculiar symptom presentation in combination with the described brain lesions. Especially, the visual phenomena of patients with these brain lesions that were up until now described in literature were complex and vivid visual hallucinations. Here, we discuss possible explanations and mechanisms of this visual phenomenon (acquired hemidyschromatopsia, peduncular hallucinosis, focal epilepsy with visual symptoms, visual hallucinations) and in light of the current literature, we argue that the most likely explanation is a form of simple visual hallucination due to release phenomena (Charles Bonnet syndrome).