Bilateral compressive optic neuropathy and outer retinopathy due to optic canal hyperostosis in a child with isolated...

Vitamin A plays a crucial role in rod phototransduction, with deficient levels manifesting as night blindness. Animal models have demonstrated bone dysplasia in the setting of hypovitaminosis A. We present a rare case of bony overgrowth leading to bilateral compressive optic neuropathy, combined with outer retinopathy, in a paediatric patient secondary to isolated vitamin A deficiency.

A single case report was conducted from Toronto, Canada.

A 12-year-old boy with known autism spectrum disorder presented with a 9-month history of progressive painless vision loss. Vision was 20/300 and hand motion in the right and left eye, respectively. Fundus photography demonstrated bilateral optic atrophy and yellow lesions notably in the right eye far periphery. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging demonstrated thinning of the retinal nerve fibre layer, alterations in the ellipsoid zone, as well as retinal pigment epithelium deposits. Computed tomography imaging demonstrated sphenoid bone thickening with narrow optic canals and moderate optic atrophy bilaterally. Full-field electroretinogram (ERG) demonstrated mildly reduced dark adapted (DA) 0.01 b-wave amplitudes and electronegative configuration of DA 3.0 and DA 10.0 ERG; the light adapted ERGs were normal. The patient was treated with pulse vitamin A therapy. Subsequently, the DA ERG normalized, outer retinal changes reversed and vision stabilised; no surgical intervention was conducted.

This case represents a rare presentation of compressive optic neuropathy with concomitant outer retinopathy secondary to isolated vitamin A deficiency. Despite improvement in outer retinal integrity on OCT imaging and ERG testing results following vitamin A supplementation, no functional improvement was obtained due to severe optic atrophy.