Toxic Optic Neuropathy caused by Methanol Poisoning
Rina Reisin, Ehud Liebovitz, Shmuel Levartovsky
Dept. of Ophthalmology, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon
A 40-year-old woman attempted suicide by drinking methanol. Her visual acuity began to deteriorate 36 hours later and was found to be 6/60 in her right eye with no light perception in the left. No systemic manifestations other than the eye symptoms were found. In the following months visual acuity improved without specific therapy. 2 months following the methanol, visual acuity was 6/6 in the right eye and finger-counting at 1 meter in the left eye. There was pronounced optic atrophy in the left eye, as well as a central defect in the left visual field due tothe methanol toxicity.