What it is
Leber hereditary optic neuropathy is a rare inherited condition that damages the optic nerve and causes painless, progressive loss of central vision, most often in young adults.
Signs and symptoms
Central scotoma
A central scotoma, a blind spot in the middle of the field of view, is a typical way the condition first appears.
Abnormality of visual evoked potentials
Tests of the visual pathway (visual evoked potentials) often show delayed signals, reflecting damage to the optic nerve.
Blurred vision
Blurred vision is a common early symptom, sometimes starting in one eye before the other.
Progressive visual loss
Vision is lost gradually and without pain, usually affecting the central vision first.
Treatment and management
What the research describes, not a recommendation. Treatment decisions belong with your clinician.
This covers treatments that appear in the published research mapped here. Investigational and experimental therapies are not included, so their absence is a boundary of this map, not a sign they do not exist.
Idebenone
Idebenone is a medicine used in Leber hereditary optic neuropathy that has been linked to some recovery of vision in treated patients.
Used to help with: Leber hereditary optic neuropathy.
“Treatment with Idebenone (two out of two patients) was associated with visual improvement and favorable outcomes, while patients treated with coenzyme Q10 reported subjective visual improvement that was not detected through visual assessments.”
Turn this into questions for your doctor
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How to read the evidence labels
Where this comes from
This guide is built from 2 published source(s). Every claim above links back to one of them. Click any source ID to read the original on PubMed.