Severance of Optic Nerve Following Traffic Accident and Its Electron Microscopic Findings

ABSTRACT

The optic nerve do not easily sever because of its anatomic status in the orbit. The purpose of this study is to investigate electron microscopic findings in the proximal portion of the severed optic nerve which remained in the orbit for about 4.5 months. Thirty seven-year-old woman showed the protruded eyeball and deep skin laceration following traffic accident. Computerized tomography and MRI demonstrated the complete severance in her left optic nerve. Her eyeball containing the proximal portion of the severed optic nerve was enucleated at about 4.5 months after traffic accident. Eletron microscopic findings showed several macrophages, fibroblast, and dense collagen fibers, which mean the fibrosis histopathologically. The fibrosis was the main pathologic outcome in the proximal portion of the severed optic nerve. We suggest that the process of the fibrosis could result from the incorporation of the fibroblast within the meninges around the optic nerve and the proliferation of the fibroblast within fibrovascular septa of the pia mater which extend into the optic nerve.