BILATERAL OPTIC NEUROPATHY FOLLOWING AMIODARONE THERAPY

The amiodarone-induced optic neuropathy seldom occurs and so far, only 17 cases have been reported. These results are summarized here and the differences between them and the ischemic optic neuropathy are pointed out. We report on a 62-years-old patient who, when treated with amiodarone, developed an optic atrophy with slightly decreased visual acuity and severe visual field defects of the left eye. On the right eye we discovered shortly after discontinuing the amiodarone therapy, how, a mild swelling of the optic disc changed to an optic atrophy with analogous, irreversible changes of visual acuity and visual fields.