Walsh & Hoyt: Methanol

Methanol ingestion is the most widely recognized cause of a toxic optic neuropathy, and methanol toxic neuropathy is also the best characterized pathogenetically and clinically. Unlike some of the intoxicants mentioned in this chapter, which are medications and therefore apt in time to be supplanted, methanol is likely to remain a permanent threat. Hence, it deserves special attention in this chapter. However, it must be noted that methanol intoxication is not an ideal paradigm for the toxic neuropathies. The combination of acute onset, life-threatening systemic symptoms, and severe irreversible visual loss is atypical.