Bálints syndrome is an uncommon and incompletely understood triad of severe neuropsychological impairments: inability to perceive the visual field as a whole (simultanagnosia), difficulty in fixating the eyes (oculomotor apraxia), and inability to move the hand to a specific object by using vision (optic ataxia). It was named in 1909 for the Austro-Hungarian neurologist and psychiatrist Rezső Bálint who first identified it.Bálints syndrome occurs most often with an acute onset as a consequence of two or more strokes at more or less the same place in each hemisphere. Therefore, it occurs rarely. The most frequent cause of complete Bálints syndrome is said by some to be sudden and severe hypotension, resulting in bilateral borderzone infarction in the occipito-parietal region. More rarely, cases of progressive Bálints syndrome have been found in degenerative disorders such as Alzheimers disease or certain other traumatic brain injuries at the border of the parietal and the occipital lobes of the brain. Lack of awareness of this syndrome may lead to a misdiagnosis and resulting inappropriate or inadequate treatment. Therefore, clinicians should be familiar with Bálints syndrome and its various etiologies. Presentation
Bálints syndrome symptoms can be quite debilitating since they impact visuospatial skills, visual scanning and attentional mechanisms. Since it represents impairment of both visual and language functions, it is a significant disability that can affect the patients safety—even in ones own home environment, and can render the person incapable of maintaining employment.
This could be achieved by tabletop activities or sensorimotor exercises. The multicontext approach, which is based on the fact that learning is not automatically transferred from one situation to another. This involves practicing of a targeted strategy in a multiple environment with varied tasks and movement demands, and it incorporates self-awareness tasks. Case studies
Symptoms of Bálints syndrome were found in the case of a 29-year-old with migraines. In the aura before the migraine headache, she experienced an inability to see all of the objects in the visual field simultaneously; an inability to coordinate hand and eye movements; and an inability to look at an object on command. Symptoms were not present before the onset of the migraine or after it passed.A study of a patient with Corticobasal Ganglionic Degeneration (CGBD) also showed a development of Bálints syndrome. As a result of CGBD, the patient developed an inability to move his eyes to specific visual objects in his peripheral fields. He also was unable to reach out and touch objects in his peripheral fields. An inability to recognize more than one item at a time was also experienced when presented with the Cookie Theft Picture from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination.A 58-year-old male presented with Bálints syndrome secondary to severe traumatic brain injury 4-months post-injury onset. He had completed a comprehensive post-acute brain injury rehabilitation program. He received 6 months of rehabilitation services as an inpatient.