TY - JOUR T1 - From the library JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 158 LP - 158 DO - 10.1136/bjo.88.1.158 VL - 88 IS - 1 A2 - , Y1 - 2004/01/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/88/1/158.abstract N2 - “This was almost certainly postdated; probably the illness, whatever it was, caught up with Goya in Andalusia sometime before, when he was staying with a friend in Cadiz named Sebastian Martinez. It was the last letter Goya would write for some time. No one can say what laid him low and so nearly killed him. He heard loud and constant noises, buzzing and roaring and ringing, in his head. But he had more and more difficulty hearing the sounds of the real world, and he could hardly make out syllables of ordinary speech. His balance was badly affected; he could not go up and down stairs without feeling in danger of falling over. He had fainting fits and spells of semi-blindness. As happens with disturbances of equilibrium, he often felt nauseated and ready to throw up. Gradually the more humiliating symptoms receded, but from 1793 onward after he turned forty-six, Goya would be functionally deaf. (Hughes, Robert. Goya. London: The Harvill Press, 2003:127The significant problem of visual field contraction as the result of the use of vigabatrin, an anti-epileptic, is now well recognised. Regrettably, this drug is especially effective in certain childhood seizures that are resistant to other mainstream medications. The full impact of this problem is summarised by Hardus and coworkers in a study of 11 patients with 4 years of follow up in the Netherlands. This study demonstrates that … ER -