Objective: To discuss the operative indications and advantages of transcranial optic nerve decompression in treatment of optic nerve injury resulted from skull base fracture.
Methods: The data, such as the site of impact, vision, ocular movement, characteristic of CT, and pathologic changes during operation, and the extent of operative decompression of 118 patients with optic nerve injury. According the site of impact on the head, 87 of lateral superciliary arch type, 18 of medial superciliary arch type, and 13 of zygomatic type, undergoing transcranial optic nerve decompression were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were followed up for 6 months after operation. For the purpose of evaluation, the postoperative outcome of visual acuity was classified into five grades: blindness, hand movement, finger count, light perception and visual acuity > 0.05. The visual acuity improvement reaching one grade or more was defined as effective. The improvement of visual field was also considered effective.
Results: After follow-up of 6 months, effect was shown in 35 out of the 72 patients with pre-operative blindness (48.6%), and all the 46 patients with residual vision (100%). The total effective rate was 68.6%. The post-operative effective rate was 64.4% in patients with lateral superciliary arch type, 83.3% in patients with medial superciliary arch type injury and 76.9% in patients with zygomatic type injury.
Conclusions: Transcranial optic nerve decompression is worthy recommending to the patients with traumatic optic neuropathy. The operative indications include patients with residual vision; patients with bilateral optic nerve injury; and patients with blindness less than 3 days.