Visual function may improve after high-dose methylprednisolone in patients with optic neuritis, suggests study

The patients with acute ON were analyzed retrospectively. For 3 to 5 days, the patients were given 1 g of oral methylprednisolone daily. Before treatment, 4 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after treatment, visual function was assessed using the ETDRS test for visual acuity, the 30-second automated visual field test, the contrast sensitivity test, and the color vision test. At several time points, optical coherence tomography of the ganglion cells was carried out to evaluate anatomical alterations.

The research comprised a total of 29 participants in total between September 2014 and September 2016. After 3 and 6 months, approximately 80% of patients had returned to normal visual acuity. Although this recovery of all visual function measures was shown as early as 4 days following the start of therapy, it generally happened within 15 days. During the follow-up, this study saw weakening of the ganglion cell layer, which typically happens within a month.

At 6 months, the P100 wave of visually evoked potentials was seen in every patient. 2 individuals suffered a recurrence of ON during the six-year follow-up period. Also, no significant negative impacts were noted. Overall, for individuals with ON, oral high-dose methylprednisolone may be a safe and effective therapy for visual recovery.

Source:

Boureaux, E., Laurent, C., Rodriguez, T., Le Page, E., & Mouriaux, F. (2024). Visual recovery after oral high-dose methylprednisolone in acute inflammatory optic neuropathy. In Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology (Vol. 262, Issue 12, pp. 3979–3985). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-024-06568-w