Childhood-Onset Optic Neuritis as the First Manifestation of Behçet's Disease

Abstract

A 15-year-old girl presented with sudden blurring of vision in both eyes, which was recurring for the third time. The fundoscopy demonstrated bilateral optic disc edema with macular star exudates. The diagnosis of Behçet's disease (BD) could be made 5 months after the first visual disturbance, when the other manifestations of the disease occurred. Although ocular involvement is frequent, primer optic neuritis has rarely been reported in BD. Childhood onset of the disorder is very uncommon as well. To our knowledge, this is the first report of optic neuritis as the first manifestation of BD in the pediatric age group.

KEYWORDS:

• Behçet's disease
• optic neuritis
• childhood-onset