efficacy of memantine in acute non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy

purpose : evaluation of efficacy of memantine (n-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist) on visual function of patients with acute non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy (naion). methods : the study was conducted as interventional case series from november 2005 through november 2006 in farabi eye hospital . twenty-two patients with acute naion of less than 8 weeks duration entered the study. memantine was prescribed with a dose of 5 mg per day for the first week and 10 mg per day for the following two weeks. baseline best corrected visual acuity (bcva) visual evoked potential (vep) and visual field was done for all patients. bcva recording repeated 3 weeks, 3 and 6 months later. vep and perimetry repeated 3 months after treatment. results : after 3 weeks, 3 and 6 months, bcva improved -0.32±0.40 logmar, -0.51±0.49 and -0.51±0.49, respectively (p=0.005, p=0.001 and p=0.001, respectively). vep recordings after 3 months, demonstrated -8.61±14.51 db mean decrease in implicit time (p=0.019). amplitude of voltage did not show significant difference with baseline (p=0.10). perimetry results after 3 months showed that mean deviation (md) improved 2.77± 3.94 db (p=0.016). conclusion : memantine resulted in significant improvement of bcva 3 weeks, 3 and 6 months after treatment of acute naion. memantine also resulted in significant decrease of implicit time and significant improvement of mean deviation in vep and perimetry after 3 months.   iranian journal of ophthalmology 200820(3):39-44