Clinical Profile, Causes, and Outcome of Optic Neuritis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: To study clinical profile, causes, and outcome of optic neuritis. Material and Method: A total of 66 eyes of 33 patients were included in this prospective observational study, which was conducted at Ophthalmology Clinic of Tertiary Care Center of Western Maharashtra, during study period of August 2019 to September 2021. Study population included all patients clinically diagnosed of optic neuritis, except patients with ischemic optic neuropathy, para-infectious cause of optic neuritis, and postvaccinated optic neuritis. Result: Maximum patients belonged to age-group of 30–40 years. Fifty-two percent were male, while 48% were female patients. Fifty-five percent of study population reported with papillitis, 39% had retrobulbar neuritis, and 6% had neuroretinitis. 94.1% had improved visual acuity, post 3 months of the steroid therapy. However, 35% revealed improved color vision status, while 58.8% continued to have impaired color vision. Conclusion: Higher frequency of papillitis has been observed in various Asian studies. The present study accounts for 55% cases of papillitis and 39% of retrobulbar neuritis, in contrast to Western studies like ONTT which revealed predominantly higher cases of retrobulbar neuritis. Optic disk edema or swelling has been identified with lower risk to multiple sclerosis, thus explaining the increased frequency of papillitis among the Asian population with optic neuritis which seems compatible with lower rates of developing MS.