Historical Perspective on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Optic Neuritis

Reviewing the history of the diagnosis and treatment of optic neuritis allows for a unique perspective on this disorder and more importantly helps to highlight the critical point in time that we are now at concerning this diagnosis, its prognosis and possible treatments. The modern literature contains hundreds of references to optic neuritis but, in fact, much of what we now ''know' of this disorder clinically was well established by the late 1800's. The invention of the ophthalmoscope by Helmoholz in 1845 allowed ophthalmologists to differentiate types of 'amaurosis and clearly localize vision loss to the optic nerve.