What is optical neuritis?

Optical neuritis is an optical nerve inflammation that often occurs in people who have multiple sclerosis (MS). This inflammatory disease can also be triggered by infection or occurs as a separate condition without a recognizable basic cause. The common symptoms of this disease include eye pain and loss of vision. Most people suffering from an isolated episode of optical nerve inflammation get their vision. Sometimes, however, loss of vision is permanent.

Optical neuritis usually develops as a result of autoimmune disorder. This type of failure is a dysfunction of the immune system. A normal, healthy immune system can distinguish between body tissues and foreign cells and tissues and attack only those that are alien. When an autoimmune disease develops, the immune system sensitizes to attack on one or more of your own body proteins.

In most cases, there is an autoimmune disorder that triggers optical nerve inflammation, multiple sclerosis. This disease develops when the immune system beginsE attack cells that produce a protein called myelin. This protein is present on the surface of most nerve cells and destruction of the immune system of myelin leads to progressive inflammation and damage to the nerves of the spinal cord and brain. Optical nerve inflammation is expected to cause eye disease in the same way.

Optical neuritis is often one of the first symptoms of RS, especially in women. Long -term studies of people with optical neuritis suggest that up to 75 percent eventually develop sclerosis in women who exhibit optical nerve inflammation. Overall, someone with this eye inflammation has approximately 20 % chance for the development of multiple sclerosis. Yet this disease is not always a predictor of RS, because bacterial infections of sinus, bacterial eye infection or systemic viral infections can cause this type EY cause inflammation.

The most common symptom of optical neuritis is the loss of vision - usually in oneOM Eye -which develops for several hours and can be accompanied by eye pain. Other symptoms of optical neuritis include the loss of color vision, pain when the eyeball moves and changes in the way the pupil reacts to light. When the vision loss occurs as an isolated incident, without a basic cause such as multiple sclerosis, most people have a good chance to regain lost vision within a few weeks.

If the loss of vision and other symptoms is caused by multiple sclerosis, it is likely that eye inflammation reappears and the chances of re -vision are lower with each subsequent episode. Treatment with intravenous corticosteroids to reduce inflammation can help improve the chances that vision will return to normal, or at least this loss of vision can be minimized. Treatment of steroids must have a short time because it is due to the possibility of complications from the use of a systemic steroid.