Symptoms
Patients who have malignant gliomas of the optic nerve have rapidly progressive, painful visual loss accompanied by signs of an optic neuropathy.6, 7 Initial visual loss may be unilateral or bilateral (chiasmal involvement), but rapid progression to bilateral blindness and death are constant features.5 Depending on the initial location of the tumor, visual loss may be accompanied by exophthalmos, extraocular motility
Optic nerve melanocytoma does not usually produce symptoms or grow. If they slowly grow, optic nerve melanocytoma can produce afferent pupillary defects (30%), subretinal fluid (10%), and an enlarged blind spot (75%).
On fundoscopic exam, the optic disc may be swollen, atrophic, or even normal. Central retinal vein occlusion may occur.
If the tumor is next to the optic nerve, growth can compress the nerve and cause gradual loss of vision and unilateral proptosis. Dyschromatopsia may occur. Growth can also cause compressive vascular problems like central retinal vein occlusion. Lastly, growth also causes the tumor to exceed its blood supply. In these cases, necrotic areas form inside the tumor. Necrosis can (in turn) cause intraocular and rarely orbital inflammation.
Read more about this topic: Optic Nerve Tumor
Famous quotes containing the word symptoms:
“In retirement, only money and symptoms are consequential.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn’t enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)