AIM:To investigate the clinical features of acute pediatric optic neuritis and the therapeutic effect of high-dose methylprednisolone pulse therapy.

METHODS:Fifty-eight cases with acute pediatric optic neuritis hospitalized in the ophthalmological department of Nanjing Children's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from June 2006 to June 2014 were enrolled. The therapeutic effect of high-dose methylprednisolone pulse therapy for the patients below 16 was evaluated using comparison of changing of effected eyes' sights, fundus examination and pupil size between pre- and post-therapy.

RESULTS:Among the 58 cases, 103 eyes got acute pediatric optic neuritis, while 55.2% etiological factors were clearly related to infect. One child(2 eyes)developed to disseminated encephalomyelitis and others unclear. The visual acuity recovered up to 0.7 in 80.5% patients, including almost 2/3 eyes were ≥1.0, while only 3.9% of them were ≤0.1 at 3mo after the therapy. Only two eyes did not show a significant improvement in visual acuity, visual fields and visual evoked response at 1mo after the therapy, reaching a frequency of 1.9%. The recovery rate of high-dose glucocorticoid pulse therapy was 60.2%, while the general effective rate was 98.1%.

CONCLUSION:Infection is the main cause of pediatric optic neuritis. The therapeutic effect of high-dose glucocorticoid pulse therapy is significant, and is valuable to spread.