Neuro-ophthalmology of eye-movement disorders

Magnetic resonance and functional brain imaging continue to expand their roles in complementing the clinical examination to localize the causes of eye-movement disorders. A retrospective review from county-based clinical practices emphasized generally benign causes of third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerve palsies in children, but a study from a tertiary referral center found a high incidence of neoplasms causing sixth-nerve palsies in children. A prospective study found that 38% of diabetic patients with third-nerve palsies had anisocoria up to 2.5 mm. An initial attempt to develop an evidence-based practice pathway for the evaluation of ocular motor nerve palsies has been developed for isolated sixth-nerve palsies in adults. In an important study of Graves hyperthyroidism, treatment with radioactive iodine was more likely than methimazole therapy alone to be associated with the appearance or worsening of ophthalmopathy. The clinical worsening of eye findings could be prevented by concurrent administration of corticosteroids for 3 months. Smoking is still a major controllable risk factor for thyroid ophthalmopathy.