Re: Can encephalitis lead in later years to Brain Tumor?

Posted By Edward Metz on October 11, 1998 at 08:39:15:

In Reply to: Re: Can encephalitis lead in later years to Brain Tumor? posted by CCF neuro MD MM on October 10, 1998 at 19:45:55:






I just discovered through a routine eye exam that I have lost a part of my peripheral vision in my right eye. I never noticed this until I was shown the results of a visual field test.  Further examination showed that my optic nerve is quite pale.  Is it possible or even likely that this was a result of a severe bout of encephalitis that I had when I was 6?  (I'm now 33).  I don't remember much anymore from that time except that I spent more than two months in the hospital and was really ill.  (Later I had to wear glasses because I began to see double.)  Am I more at risk for a brain tumor as a result of this illness I had as a child?  Have you ever heard of any case of someone losing part of their vision as a result of encephalitis or is it more probable that something else as caused this?  Thank you....
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I meant to note also in my first query that the doctor noticed a macular dystrophy in both my eyes.  I had to get an angiography but the doctor told me that the results were not consistent with what he at first suspected.  (Sorry, I can't remember the word they used, it was long and complicated).  Is there any correlation between this dystrophy and the paleness of my optic nerve?  What is an asymptomatic optic neuritis?


  
It is possible that you lost part of your visual field as a result of
encephalitis if the encephalitis damaged part of the visual pathway or
the visual cortex where visual information is processed.
A pale optic nerve is usually a sequel to inflammation of the nerve at some point,
although probably not encephalitis as this aggressive form of inflammation
would probably destroy the nerve completely causing blindness in that eye.
You may have had a mild asymptomatic optic neuritis at some point.
There is absolutely no evidence that suffering encephalitis as a child
leads to a higher risk of brain tumor in later life.