ABSTRACT
Objective: to investigate the patients of opt c atrophy to find the cause
Material and Methods: this descriptive study was conducted at department of neurology, Mayo Hospital Lahore and department of medicine, Wapda Teaching Hospital, Lahore. Patients of all ages and both sexes with optic atrophy were included. Patients of pure eye diseases like glaucoma and those having any contraindication to essential investigations were excluded. First 118 patients were studied. After history and physical examination some initial and predetermined tests were performed on all patients. Further advance investigations were performed to reach the diagnosis on case to case basis. All the data obtained was processed for the results
Results: out of these 118 patients, 75 [63.56%] were male and 43 [36.44%] were female. Mean age was 43.97 +/- 17.54 years [range 3 to 71 years]. Causes of optic atrophy included, Tumours in 29 [24.58%], demyelinating diseases in 19 [16.10%], infections in 18 [15.25%], methanol toxicity in 11 [9.32%] and ischemic optic neuropathies in 9 [7 .63%] patients. Hydrocephalus and hereditary optic neuropathies, each in 4 [3.39%] patients while non-neoplastic compressive lesions, drugs and trauma, each in 3 [2.54 %] patients caused optic atrophy. Nine patients had rare causes while six patients remained undiagnosed
Conclusion: tumours, demyelinating diseases, infections, methanol toxicity and ischemic optic neuropathies were the frequent causes of optic atrophy. Methanol toxicity is more common in our society as compared to the rest of the world