Neurological and developmental findings in children with optic disc drusen

In ophthalmoscopy, optic disc drusen often bear a fallacious resemblance to true papilloedema and some of those affected have neurological disorders. Adequate realization among neuropaediatricians of the relation between drusen and these disorders may save some children from neuroradiological and neurosurgical investigations, often considered unavoidable for exclusion of an intracranial process. Systematic evaluation in a series of 50 children with optic disc drusen showed that neurological disorders are common even in subjects brought to examination for other reasons than neurological symptoms. The findings showed accumulation into two subgroups. There was a group of 15 clumsy children with learning difficulties and delayed development of speech. Another group consisted of 20 children with sudden convulsions and/or headache and vomiting, and with EEG abnormalities but otherwise normal neurological findings. In addition, there were a subgroup with miscellaneous abnormalities and a minor group of children in whom no abnormalities were found except for the eye anomaly.