High dose corticosteroids for treatment of vision loss due to indirect injury to the optic nerve.

Thirty-six patients with vision loss due to indirect injury to the optic nerve were retrospectively studied. Twenty-one had been acutely treated with high-dose intravenous dexamethasone and 15 had not. The visual acuity of 62% of the treated patients and of 33% of the untreated patients improved. This difference was not statistically significant. However, of those patients whose vision did improve, the vision of those on steroids began to improve earlier (P less than .05).