Embolic ischemic optic neuropathy.

On examining the postmortem enucleated eyes of a 68-year-old man, we found the left eye had focal infarction 3 mm behind the lamina cribrosa caused by thromboembolic compromise of three discrete pial and pial-derived arterioles. The optic nerve had been destroyed focally, whereas the retinal and choroidal tissue supplied by a similarly occluded vessel had been preserved. We diagnosed nonarteritis ischemic optic neuropathy.