OPTIC NERV GRANULOMA AS THE FIRST SYMPTOM OF SYSTEMIC SARCOIDOSIS

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatosis disease of unknown cause that may involve many ocular structures in about one third of cases. The f indings of a posterior uveitis include vitritis, retinal periphlebitis , chorioretinal infiltrates, serpiginous-choroiditis, optic nerve atro phy and edema or granulomatous infiltration of the papilla. The centra l nervous system is clinically affected in 5 to 15% of cases. Despite several dozen published case reports of sarcoidoses of the optic nerve , direct infiltration of this structure is considered rare. We describ e herein the case of 25-year-old white man whose only symptom of syste mic sarcoidosis was optic nerve granuloma.