Retrobulbar neuritis associated with empty sella syndrome: A diagnostic challenge

Abstract

A 35-year-old female presented with sudden diminution of vision to finger counting at half meters in right eye (RE) since 15 days. RE showed grade III RAPD. Rest of the ocular examination was normal. She had no significant past medical history. Neuroimaging showed empty sella. We suspected retrobulbar neuritis (RBN) as a cause of loss of vision since there was no evidence of acute change in morphology of sella turcica like hemorrhage, trauma or ischemia, furthermore there were no pathological findings in RE and visual cortex to explain acute visual loss. Therefore, we prescribed intravenous steroids followed by oral steroids. Vision in RE improved to 6/12 after 15 days. We found that RBN can be a cause of sudden vision loss in cases with empty sella syndrome (ESS) and can pose diagnostic challenge that whether the vision loss is due to ESS or RBN. RBN can be a cause of acute vision loss in patients with ESS and can create diagnostic confusion.