Posttraumatic Emphysema of the Optic Nerve Sheath

Abstract

The authors describe the case of a 19-year-old female who suffered posttraumatic emphysema of the optic nerve sheath. She suffered massive head trauma requiring emergent neurosurgery and was incidentally found to have air in her optic nerve sheath on CT scan. At 6 weeks follow up, her visual acuity (20/25 uncorrected) and color perception in the affected eye were excellent. Her examination was notable for an afferent pupillary defect, mild disc pallor, and optic nerve atrophy on optical coherence tomography. This is a case of a patient with posttraumatic optic nerve sheath emphysema who recovered excellent visual function and received follow-up ophthalmic imaging.