ABSTRACT
This study was designed to evaluate the prevention of ethambutol [EMB] induced toxicity in optic nerve by memantine. Forty optic nerve specimens were obtained from twenty New Zealand albino rabbits; these were divided into four groups, each comprising five animals. Group A, was given distilled water according to their weight, in addition to water ad libitum. Group B was treated with EMB 100 mg/kg/day and groups C and D were treated with memontine [MEM], 1 and 5 mg/kg/day respectively, in addition to EMB for four weeks which was given one hour before administering EMB. Optic nerves were removed after sacrificing the animals under anaesthesia and processed for histological examination. It was observed that the preparations from group B showed marked vacuolation of axoplasm [205.60 +/- 49.33] the difference was statistically significant when compared with groups A [2.80 +/- 0.22], C [2.80 +/- 0.98] and D [1.33 +/- 0.37], It was concluded that EMB induced vacuolar changes could be prevented by using MEM