Low-dose intravenous methylprednisolone or conservative treatment in the management of traumatic optic neuropathy.

PURPOSE

To compare the efficacy of low-dose intravenous methylprednisolone or conservative treatment in the management of traumatic optic neuropathy.

METHODS

A non-randomized retrospective study of 21 patients (21 eyes) with traumatic optic neuropathy treated between October 95 and November 97 in a tertiary ophthalmology unit. Traumatic optic neuropathy was defined as traumatic visual loss with afferent pupillary defect in the absence of direct injury to the globe or optic nerve. The median follow-up period was one year. Nine patients were treated with 125-250 mg methylprednisolone 6-hourly intravenously for a mean of 3.3 days (range 2-5 days) and 12 patients were treated conservatively. Visual acuity (VA) was measured with a Snellen chart before and after treatment at each follow-up visit. Visual recovery was defined as an improvement of 2 or more Snellen lines one week post-injury or later.

RESULTS

The patients' mean age was 37.1 years (range 12-65 years). There were more males (90.5%) than females (9.5%). Traumatic optic neuropathy was in 12 right eyes and 9 left eyes. The cause of injury included traffic accidents (52.4%), falls (28.6%), assault (14.2%) and others (4.8%). The mean interval between the injury and steroid therapy was 3.6 days (range 1-11 days). Visual recovery was observed in 44.4% of eyes treated with methylprednisolone and in 33.3% treated conservatively (p = 0.673, Fisher's exact test).

CONCLUSIONS

Intravenous methylprednisolone at the dosage and duration used in this retrospective study did not significantly improve the visual recovery of eyes with traumatic optic neuropathy compared to conservative treatment. However, this small sample may not be sensitive enough to detect a small difference in visual recovery rates, and further studies with larger samples may be warranted.