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Article
December 1938

LESION OF THE OPTIC TRACT: PROBABLY THE RESULT OF INFECTED SPHENOID SINUSES

Author Affiliations

KANSAS CITY, MO.

Arch Ophthalmol. 1938;20(6):966-973. doi:10.1001/archopht.1938.00850240080005
Abstract

The article of Onodi entitled "The Optic Nerve and the Accessory Cavities of the Nose"1 in 1908 laid the anatomic foundation for the theory of blindness as a result of disease of the accessory sinuses. Smith, Van de Hoeve and Loeb reported the clinical application of this theory and some results obtained by surgical intervention on the ethmoid and sphenoid sinuses. White2 published reports of 2 cases of retrobulbar neuritis due to disease of the accessory sinuses in 1916 and of 3 cases in 1917. These articles stimulated a wave of enthusiasm, with the result that most cases of retrobulbar neuritis not due to purely exogenous toxins, such as tobacco, alcohol, lead, thallium acetate, etc., were attributed to disease of the posterior sinuses. Since that time in this country the pendulum has swung back and forth from disease of the posterior sinuses to multiple sclerosis or foci

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