Conduite à tenir devant une baisse aiguë de l'acuité visuelle chez l'enfant

Child Neurology: Bartonella henselae Neuroretinitis in 2 Patients

Neuroretinitis due to Bartonella henselae infection is a rare cause of vision loss in children. Two pediatric cases of acute unilateral vision loss accompanied by edema of the optic nerve on fundoscopic examination are presented. Severe causes of vision loss were excluded. During the course of the disease, macular stellate exudates emerged on control fundoscopic examinations, and diagnosis of neuroretinitis was made. A causative agent was confirmed by serologic examination, as high titers of IgM and IgG antibodies to Bartonella henselae were detected. Both patients significantly recovered after oral antibiotic treatment.

Requirement for Head Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Children Who Present to the Emergency Department With Acute Nontraumatic Visual Disturbance

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the clinical features and head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in children who presented to the emergency department with acute nontraumatic visual disturbance and to study related clinical factors for discovering positive lesions on head MRI.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective study of 1-month to 15-year-old children who underwent head MRI as an evaluation for acute nontraumatic visual disturbance as a chief complaint in our pediatric emergency department between March 2010 and March 2015. The symptoms of visual disturbance were blurred vision, diplopia, loss of vision, and visual hallucination. Head MRI findings were considered positive when lesions could explain the symptoms.

RESULTS

We identified 39 patients (25 with blurred vision, 9 with diplopia, 3 with loss of vision, and 2 with visual hallucination) with a mean age of 8.35 ± 4.06 years. Positive head MRI findings were identified in 13 patients (33.3%). Brain tumors were most common (53.8%), followed by optic nerve inflammations (23.1%), congenital brain lesions (15.4%), and hypertensive encephalopathy (7.7%). Compared with the negative head MRI group, the positive head MRI group showed significantly less transient visual disturbance (duration <1 hour to complete recovery) (P = 0.001), more limited eye movement (P = 0.003), and more pupillary abnormalities (P = 0.030).

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest performing urgent head MRI in children with acute nontraumatic visual disturbance if the symptoms last longer than 1 hour without complete recovery and are accompanied by limited eye movement or pupillary abnormality.

Paediatric patients with sudden vision impairment - An overview of MRI findings

PURPOSE

Sudden visual impairment in children occurs sporadically but, when present, needs urgent attention. Optimal management strategies and timely recognition are required. Often psychogenic disorders are the cause in school-age children; however, this is a diagnosis of exclusion. Therefore, MRI plays an important role in ruling out pathology along the optic pathways or helping with the diagnosis of underlying life threatening diseases, such as hydrocephalus or intracranial mass. The purpose of this study was first to evaluate non-traumatic (tumoural and non-tumoural) causes of acute vision impairment; and, second, to assess whether conventional cerebral and orbital MR imaging is helpful for children with sudden visual impairment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively analysed the MRI scans and clinical findings of 95 children (47 male, 48 female; median age: 12.5 years, range: from 2 to 17 years) who presented symptoms of monocular or bilateral acute vision impairment.

RESULTS

Patients with acute visual impairment were usually older than 7 years. In 36% of the patients a correlation between the MRI findings and the clinical symptoms was found. The most common causes of visual impairment were: infectious diseases (16%), migraine (12%), autoimmune diseases (11%), optic nerve neuritis with unknown aetiology (8%), neoplasms (8%), idiopathic intracranial hypertension (5%) and orthostatic hypotension (4%). Still, in 23% of the patients the cause remained unclear.

CONCLUSION

Acute vision impairment is frequently caused by infectious diseases, migraine, autoimmune diseases or tumours in children. MRI is highly recommended, especially in the case of children younger than 5 years of whom clinical assessment can be difficult.