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Acute Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (AION)What is AION?AION is damage to the nerve that results from not enough blood flow.
There are two types of AION: arteritic and non-arteritic. Non-arteritic is more common (90-95%). Although less common, the arteritic type is associated with (giant cell) temporal arteritis, an inflammatory condition of the large blood vessels, especially the temporal artery which runs along the side of the face and temple. Please advise your doctor if you have any of the following symptoms:
How do I know if I have AION?Patients with AION typically wake up with painless loss of vision. This form of visual loss has been described in patients who have taken Viagra the night before. The most common visual loss is altitudinal – you can’t see either below, or less commonly above the center of vision. Red looks more brown or orange. When your doctor looks at your optic nerve in the back of your eye, a quadrant or half of the nerve is swollen with some hemorrhages. Visual field testing will often reveal a loss of the inferior (lower) visual field, but any pattern of loss is possible.
Who gets AION?
How is AION treated?There is no known effective treatment for AION. If the visual loss is severe or the second eye has been effective intravenous steroids and blood thinners have been tried, but there is no medical evidence to support any intervention. What should I expect if I am diagnosed with AION?Once the visual loss has occurred, one third of patients notice some improvement in visual field loss, one-third remain stable and one-third worsen. If your vision is dramatically decreased (less than 20/200) and you are older than 50 years old, giant cell arteritis should be suspected. Blood work (CBC, ESR, CRP) and a biopsy of your temporal artery is indicated. If your visual dysfunction progresses or you have any other neurologic symptoms, an imaging study of your optic nerve and brain should be performed (MRI to exclude a tumor or other process).
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