The treatment of acute optic neuritis. An analysis of eighty cases.

Abstract

Optic neuritis is a disease for which a precise etiology or pathogenesis is frequently unknown. No specific treatment, accordingly, has received universal acceptance. Nonspecific remedies such as vasodilators, typhoid H antigen, and, more recently, steroids, have all been employed therapeutically. This paper represents an effort to assess the relative merits of the various therapeutic agents heretofore employed in the treatment of acute optic neuritis of unknown etiology and in optic neuritis associated with multiple sclerosis in the hope that such information may serve as a guide to better treatment, or possibly suggest fruitful avenues for future research. The recent literature includes case reports indicating success or failure of treatment with these various agents.1-3In 1952 Carroll4reported on 240 cases of optic neuritis, concluding that no therapeutic agent proved itself superior. Although clinical publications far outnumbered basic scientific contributions in the treatment of optic neuritis, two experimental reports