Papilledema in poliomyelitis.

Abstract

DURING 1949 and 1950, 106 patients with acute anterior poliomyelitis were treated on the neurological service of the New York Hospital. During early convalescence changes in the optic fundi resembling papilledema developed in five of these patients. This finding was remarkable, since abnormalities in the optic fundi are apparently rare in poliomyelitis and have been noted by only a few of those who have written about the illness. Wickmann, 1 in his monograph on poliomyelitis, published in 1907, reported one patient with papillitis. Ruhrah and Mayer, 2 in 1916, reported that 2 out of 338 patients with poliomyelitis had associated disease of the optic nerves. In neither of these patients was examination of the optic fundi reported. Hall, 3 in 1918, described a case of poliomyelitis in which 5.5 D. of neuroretinitis appeared on the 20th day of the illness. These changes were associated with elevation of the spinal fluid