Incidence, Treatment and Prognosis of Terson's Syndrome

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the incidence of Terson's syndrome, to find the proper time for its treatment, and to give a prognosis of visual acuity. METHODS: In order to investigate the incidence of Terson's syndrome, 228 patients were taken as the subjects of this study from among the total 275 patients who had been hospitalized in the neurosurgical department for a year. Forty-seven patients were excluded who developed vitreous hemorrhage due to any cause other than intracranial hemorrhage and could not be followed up for three months. In the fundus examination of study subjects, the incidence of Terson's syndrome based on preceding diseases and the patient age, and prognosis of visual acuity with surgical treatment were analyzed according to the Snellen chart, along with nine eyes of seven patients who showed vitreous hemorrhage. RESULTS The average incidence of Terson's syndrome between groups was 3.1%; it was 3.7% for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage and 2.6% for the other patients (subdural hemorrhage, epidural hemorrhage). The 29% of the subjects were due to binocular involved. Patients in their 40's and 50's accounted for 6.0%, which was higher the percentage of any other age group. The decision as to whether or not to surgically treat Terson's syndrome was made based on the extent of visual acuity improvement during the three months after vitreous hemorrhage development. Thus, we observed comparatively good long-term prognoses for visual acuity and a low frequency of complications occurring. CONCLUSIONS: We expect a relatively good prognosis of visual acuity and a low occurrence of complications. More research similar to this case-control study is needed to confirm the usefulness of such therapy.