Incidence of Optic Disc Drusen in Patients with Papilledema

Optic disc drusen (ODD) are congenital acellular proteinaceous deposits of the optic nerve head and have a prevalence of 3.7% in adults and 1.0% in the pediatric population. ODD can cause elevation of the optic nerve head, mimicking the appearance of disc edema, and are a common cause of pseudopapilledema, a condition that is not vision threatening. In contrast, papilledema is potentially vision threatening optic disc swelling caused by elevated intracranial pressure. Historically, ODD and papilledema have been viewed as 2 distinct disease processes; however, a higher prevalence of ODD in children with papilledema has been reported. We hypothesize that ODD are non-coincidental sequelae of papilledema. Our aim is to estimate the incidence of ODD in adult and pediatric patients with papilledema.