Endoscopic decompression of the optic canal for traumatic optic neuropathy

PURPOSE Traumatic optic neuropathy (TON) is a serious complication of head trauma with the incidence rate of 0.5%-5%. The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of endoscopic decompression of the optic canal for optic nerve injuries. METHODS In this study, 11 patients treated in our hospital from January 2009 to January 2015 with the visual loss resulting from TON were retrospectively reviewed for preoperative vision, visual evoked potential (VEP) scan, surgical approach, postoperative visual acuity, complications, and follow-up results. RESULTS All these patients received endoscopic decompression of the optic canal. At the 3-month follow- up, the visual acuity improvement rate of the 11 patients was 45.5%. The vision acuity of 2 cases improved from hand movement to 0.08 and 0.3 after operation. Another patient's vision acuity returned to 0.05 compared to light sensation preoperatively. Two cases had finger counting before surgery but they had a vision acuity of 0.4 and light sensation respectively after surgery. However, the other 6 cases' vision did not improve after surgery. CONCLUSION Endoscopic decompression of the optic canal is an effective way to cure TON. VEP could be used as an important reference for preoperative and prognosis evaluation. Operative time after trauma is only a relative condition that may affect the therapeutic effect of optic canal decompression. Poor results of this procedure may be related to the severity of the optic nerve injury.