1Kediha Mohamed Islam, 1Moualek Dalila, 1Bouakaz Imene Fatma, 1Ali Pacha Lamia

1Neurology Department, Mustapha Bacha University Hospital, Algiers, Algeria

Introduction:

Inflammatory optic neuropathies (ION) represent frequent neuro-ophthalmological emergencies, sources of severe functional handicap. They often pose an etiological problem.

Objective(s):

To study the clinical, radiological, etiological and evolutionary particularities of ION in Algerian patients.

Material(s) and Method(s):

This is a retrospective study of 23 patients, hospitalized at the Neurology Department of the CHU Mustapha of Algiers, over a period of 6 years (from January 2015 to june 2021). All these patients benefited from an exhaustive etiological assessment. Any non-inflammatory cause was excluded as well as any patient whose etiology was multiple sclerosis (MS).

Result(s):

A clear female predominance was observed in this series (21F/2H). The etiologies identified were seropositive neuromyelitis optica (NMO) (10 patients), seronegative NMO (06 patients), idiopathic forms (04 patients), Mogopathies (02 patients) and 01 form linked to an optic nerve glioma. Radiologically, optic nerve lesions with contrast were found in 9 patients whose causes varied between NMO, MOG and idiopathic forms. We will specify the location: anterior, posterior or on the whole nerve as well as the correlation with the causal condition.

Discussion:

NMO seems to be the most frequent Non-MS aetiology of ION, which is consistent with the literature. The response to different immunological treatments is variable. It depends on the proposed treatment and the earliness of its initiation. Nevertheless, a few cases of blindness have been reported despite optimal management.

Conclusion(s):

The management of ION and its prognosis depend on the aetiology and the earliness of the treatment. NMO dominates the causes in our series. The lesions observed on MRI centred on the optic nerve and their extents constitute an additional argument, helping the etiological research.