Neuro-Ophthalmologic Evaluation of Oculomotor Nerve Paralysis

Abstract

Paralysis of the oculomotor nerve as a clinical sign has been well known to both the neurologist and the ophthalmologist. In recent years its relationship to underlying, potentially remediable, intracranial aneurysms has been described and emphasized.^1-11Also described and becoming more recognized has been the relationship between oculomotor nerve paralysis and the relatively common metabolic disorder of diabetes mellitus.^12-25 A series of 130 consecutive patients with isolated oculomotor nerve paralysis has been examined in the Neurology Clinic of the Wills Eye Hospital during the past 20 years and serves as the basis for this study. Such a series of patients would be comparable to patients who might present themselves first to an ophthalmologist. Excluded from our series have been all patients initially showing any signs referable to the nervous system other than an isolated oculomotor nerve paralysis. <h3>Present Study</h3> This survey consists of 130 patients with oculomotor nerve paralysis