[Treatment of optic neuropathies--state of the art]

Optic nerve diseases have various causes and are together with macular degeneration the most common causes of severe irreversible visual dysfunction. Apart from glaucoma, which will not be discussed in this review, the most common categories are inflammatory, ischaemic, compressive, toxic, hereditary, and neoplastic. They all share optic atrophy as a common end stage as well as the fact that treatment options are rather hampered, partially due to the fact that the molecular mechanisms of axonal loss are yet not understood well enough. This review covers most optic nerve diseases and places special emphasis on the use of corticosteroids in optic neuritis, ischaemic optic neuropathy and traumatic optic neuropathy.