Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy overview
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Differentiating Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy from other Diseases |
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) is a medical condition involving loss of vision due to damage to the optic nerve from insufficient blood supply. AION is generally divided into two types: arteritic AION (or AAION) and non-arteritic AION (NAION or simply AION). This article will focus primarily on non-arteritic AION.
The distinction between AAION and NAION was made to highlight the different etiologies of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. AAION is due to temporal arteritis (also called giant cell arteritis), an inflammatory disease of medium-sized blood vessels that occurs especially with advancing age. In contrast, NAION results from the coincidence of cardiovascular risk factors in a patient with "crowded" optic discs. Non-arteritic AION is more common than AAION and usually occurs in a slightly younger group than AAION. While only a few cases of NAION result in near total loss of vision, most cases of AAION involve nearly complete vision loss.
Beyond this introduction, this article will focus on non-arteritic AION. For a discussion on arteritic AION see the separate article arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Though the term "AION" can be used to describe either anterior ischemic optic neuropathy in general or non-arteritic AION specifically, in this article "AION" henceforth will be used to refer to non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.