AIM: To investigate the efficacy and safety of the mouse nerve growth factor(M-NGF)in treating diabetic optic neuropathy(DON).

METHODS: All 67 cases(115 eyes)with DON were randomly divided into two groups according to the need of photocoagulation or not, and each group was randomly divided into normal treatment group and M-NGF treatment group. Patients in normal treatment group were treated by conventional way and those in M-NGF treatment group were treated with M-NGF plus conventional treatment for 3 weeks. Two months later, the vision and visual field of different groups were inspected and the safety was evaluated.

RESULTS: The effective rate was 71.4% in normal treatment group and 94.7% in M-NGF treatment group(P<0.05)in non-photocoagulation group, and 73.0% in normal treatment group and 93.3% in M-NGF treatment group(P<0.05)in photocoagulation group. The general effective rate of later was higher than the former(P<0.05), while the treatment effect had no significant statistical difference(P>0.05). Apart from local injection pain and swelling scleroma in several patients, other side effects were not found.

CONCLUSION: M-NGF is an effective and safe way to treat DON, which is worth widely applying in clinical practice.