[Tobacco-alcohol amblyopia. Clinical course in 33 patients]

The clinical data of 33 patients with tobacco-alcohol-amblyopia are described. Usually, the visual disturbance concerned both eyes and was not associated neither with headache nor with painful eye movements. The fundus was very often normal. In the static perimetry mostly relative or absolute central scotomas were found, sometimes centrocoecal scotomas and very seldom paracentral scotomas. The colour vision was very often disturbed, usually the red-green discrimination. In the rule the amplitudes of the visual evoked potentials were diminished, the P-100 latency was delayed in 39%. A follow-up of 25 patients revealed that the visus and the results of the static perimetry improved in 72% during vitamin substitution (B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid). In a few cases this improvement could be observed even though the alcohol drinking was not ceased. In most cases the disturbance of the colour vision and the pathologic visual evoked potentials, however, did not change.