INCIPIENT NON-ARTERITIC AION

In my studies I have found a small group of non-arteritic AION eyes which presented initially without any symptoms whatsoever, and on a routine eye examination were found to have optic disc swelling without any demonstrable visual loss on either visual acuity testing or visual field plotting; this indicates that optic disc edema without any visual loss is an early sign of non-arteritic AION.^17,39 During the past 25 years I have had about 50 such patients. In eyes that are first seen during the incipient AION stage and later develop visual loss, the optic disc edema usually lasts for several months unlike those seen initially with visual loss, in whom it usually lasts for about a couple of months. This is most probably because eyes that present with visual loss only have had optic disc edema for a long time before they developed visual loss and consulted the ophthalmologist. As the nerve fibers in the optic disc start to degenerate, the edema accordingly starts to resolve.

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