Study of Patients with Acute Visual Loss

Background : Acute vision loss can be transient (lasting < 24 h) or persistent (lasting > 24 h). When evaluating a patient with acute vision loss, it is important to determine whether the vision loss affected one eye or both eyes. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 90% of the 285 million visually impaired people in the world live in low-income countries. Aim : To Study the possible neurological causes in the patients presented by acute visual loss. Patients and methods : This prospective observational study included 60 patients with acute visual loss of different ages, and sex recruited from the Neurology department and out patients referred from ophthalmology departments of Al-Azher University Hospital (Assiut) from beginning of March 2021 to the end of August 2021. Results : Our study revealed that the most common cause of acute visual loss in the studied patients was optic neuritis which observed in 22 (36.67%), followed by Non-arteritic -AION in 18 (30.00%) of patients, the least etiology was Functional (8.33%). Conclusion : Among different diseases, vascular conditions may present monocularly or binocularly in the form of ischemic optic neuropathies or cerebral infarction. Diagnosis of functional vision loss must be considered after excluding all other organic causes of acute vision loss.