Comparison of oral and pulse steroid therapy in nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy

Abstract

Purpose: To compare oral and pulse steroid therapies in terms of visual functional improvement in patients with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). Materials and Methods: Twenty-six eyes of 25 NAION cases who were refered to Balikesir University Department of Ophthalmology between April 2019 and July 2021 were studied retrospectively. Visual functional outcomes were evaluated between patients treated with pulse steroid (group 1, n=14) and oral steroid (group 2, n=11) and followed for at least 3 months. The two groups were compared in terms of age, gender, duration of symptoms, systemic diseases, initial and final best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Results: In Group 1, median of initial BCVA was 0.15 (0.008-0.8) and median of final BCVA was 0.4 (0.008-1.0) (p=0.011). In Group 2, median of initial BCVA was 0.3 (0.04-1.0) and median of final BCVA was 0.5 (0.02-1.0) (p=0.028). There was no difference between two groups in terms of initial and final BCVA (p=0.281, p=0.721, respectively). BCVA increased in 73.3%(n=11) of the eyes in group 1 and 54.5%(n=6) in group 2 (p=0.659). There was no difference between two groups in terms of visual acuity gain (p=0.494). Conclusions: Our results suggest that pulse steroid therapy had no superiority over oral steroid therapy in terms of visual gain in NAION patients. © 2024 Gazi Eye Foundation. All rights reserved.