Bilateral Optic Neuropathy with Bilateral Putaminal Lesions: A Case Report

Bilateral optic neuropathy with bilateral putaminal lesions may be caused by methanol or cyanide poisoning or mitochondrial disorders including Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and Leigh syndrome. We report the case of a 34-year-old Japanese man who developed bilateral visual loss 5 days after the development of gastrointestinal symptoms. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain on admission revealed high-intensity signal areas in the bilateral putamina on diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted images as well as a high-intensity signal area in the left middle cerebellar peduncle that had been identified 3 years previously. We diagnosed bilateral optic neuropathy with bilateral putaminal lesions caused by preceding infection-triggered demyelination. We administered methylprednisolone, but his vision did not recover.