Clinical presentation and etiological pattern in patients with ocular motor nerve palsy in kolar region

Aim: The aim of the study is to determine the clinical presentation and document the etiological factors in patients with ocular motor nerve palsy in Kolar region Materials and methods: All patients with ocular motor nerve palsies at R. L. JALAPPA HOSPITAL attached to SRI DEVARAJ URS MEDICAL COLLEGE, Tamaka Kolar were taken up for this observational study between december 2013 to august 2015. Details of various modes of presentation and etiologies were documented. Results: A total of 74 patients presented with cranial nerve palsies. There were 44 males and 30 females and mean age was 40.68. Most of the patients came with chief complaints of diplopia (43%) followed by ptosis (23%), headache (19%), diminution of vision (8.1%), fever (12.2%) and eye pain (9.5%). The frequency of distribution of ocular motor nerve palsy was the 3rd cranial nerve was most affected in 31 patients (41.89%), 4th cranial nerve was involved in 4 patients(5.4%) and 6th cranial nerve was involved in 25 patients (33.78%) and multiple cranial nerve palsy were involved in 14 patients (18.2%)The etiology was classified as traumatic in 27 (36.5%), ischemic in 16(21.6%), tumor in 5 (6.8%), demyelinating in 2 (2.7%), inflammatory in 13 patients and idiopathic in 6 (8.1%) cases. Conclusion: We studied the clinical presentation and etiological pattern of ocular motor nerve palsies in Kolar region, diplopia was the most common symptom at presentation followed by ptosis. Isolated cranial nerve were more frequently affected among them third nerve was involved in majority and etiology causing third nerve palsy was trauma, second most common nerve involved was sixth cranial nerve and most of them had vascular ischemic etiology .CT/MRI have been performed in 70% of our cases and the probable diagnosis was made in 49%. Hence proving the usefulness of these imaging modalities in ocular motor nerve palsies.