Clinical Spectrum of Pediatric Optic Neuritis in Indian Children
Optic neuritis refers to inflammation of the optic nerve.
Inflammation of the optic nerve causes loss of vision usually
due to the swelling and destruction of the myelin sheath covering the optic nerve.
Direct axonal damage may also play a role in nerve loss in many cases.
The most common aetiology in adults is multiple sclerosis while that
in children is considered to be parainfectious.
Symptoms of optic neuritis include sudden loss of vision with
an afferent pupillary defect in the involved eye,
pain on movement of affected eye, and impairment
of visual functions such as color vision, contrast sensitivity and visual fields.
Typically, there is spontaneous recovery of vision and this has
been shown to get accelerated by steroids.
Optic neuritis affects children less commonly than adults.
Optic neuritis in children may occur as an isolated episode having,
presumably, a self-limited course and carrying no
prognostic implication with respect to the rest of the nervous system.
Other cases may be followed by development of MS,
neuromyelitis optica or Schilder’s disease.
Majority of the information about pediatric optic neuritis comes from
western literature and the data is sparse in Asian countries.
Furthermore, since optic neuritis treatment trial excluded
patients with pediatric optic neuritis, little is known about its
spectrum and outcome.
Ophthalmol Open J. 2017; 2(2): 20-26. doi: 10.17140/OOJ-2-109
