[Clinical features and etiologies of acute neuroretinitis in southern Tunisia]

The diagnosis of neuroretinitis is clinical, with optic nerve involvement and a macular star. The most common etiology is cat scratch disease.

Study of 7 patients (7 eyes) with neuroretinitis. A complete ophthalmic examination, fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography were performed for all patients. A focused etiological work-up was conducted.

The mean age of the patients was 41.6 years [27-51 years]. Decreased visual acuity was the most common reason for consultation. The neuroretinitis was unilateral in all cases. Subclinical serous retinal detachment was noted in 5 patients. The common etiologies were rickettsiosis (4 cases) and tuberculosis (1 case). Leber's idiopathic stellate neuroretinitis was concluded by the negativity of the etiological investigation. Doxycycline was the treatment of choice for rickettsiosis.

Rickettsiosis appears to be more common than cat scratch disease as an etiology of neuroretinitis in the present study in southern Tunisia. Moreover, the clinical association of a serous retinal detachment, rarely reported in the literature, seems to be more frequent in our series.