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Methanol optic neuropathy

A histopathological study

Neuro-Ophthalmology and Playfair Neuroscience Units, Division of Neurology, Toronto Western Hospital, the Departments of Medicine and Ophthalmology (Drs. Sharpe and Hostovsky), and the Department of Pathology (Drs. Bilbao and Rewcastle), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The histopathologic effects of methanol on the optic nerve were studied in four patients. Circumscribed myelin damage occurred behind the lamina cribrosa in each nerve. Axons were preserved. Demyelination also occurred in cerebral hemispheric white matter in one patient. This selective myelinoclastic effect of methanol metabolism is probably caused by histotoxic anoxia in watershed areas of the cerebral and distal optic nerve circulations. Juxtabulbar demyelination may cause optic disk edema in methanol poisoning by compressive obstruction of orthograde axoplasmic flow. Visual loss may be due to disruption of saltatory conduction. Retrolaminar demyelinating optic neuropathy is an early morphologic correlate of visual loss in methanol intoxication.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Sharpe, Division of Neurology, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 2S8.

This study was supported by the E. A. Baker Foundation, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and by the McEachern Fund, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto.

Accepted for publication March 31, 1982.

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