CLINICO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BILATERAL OPTIC DISC EDEMA IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE.

Background: Optic disc edema (ODE) is one of the most common reasons for referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist. There are various causes that require vastly different workup. Thus, differentiating among each cause is important. Our goal was to determine the causes of bilateral optic disc edema and various clinical characteristics of consecutive patients with ODE presenting to tertiary care hospital. Methods: A prospective, descriptive study was conducted at Government medical college, Srinagar in a time period of 1 year and cases of bilateral optic disc edema presenting to the Outpatient department from November 2022 to November 2023 were included in the study. Total 44 patients with bilateral optic disc edema were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 27.46 ± 13.97 years with the majority being female. Results: The most common cause of disc edema was Pappiledema (61.36%).IIH was the most frequent cause (40.90%) of disc Edema followed by papillitis (20.45%), pseudopapillitis (11.36%) and ischemia (4.5%). Among the eyes affected, 78.3% had BCVA 6/6-6/18, 36.6% had color vision defect and 31.4% had reducedcontrast sensitivity. The most common visual field defect was isolated enlarged blind spot (39.7 %). Conclusion: Increased ICP followed by hypertensive retinopathy are the most common causes of bilateral disc edema. Clinical profile of patients with IIH was an overweight female of child- bearing age with headache. Visual field examinations are essential in management and follow-up. Conditions with disc edema mainly affect the age group 21-40 years with femalesaffected 3 times more than males.