Complications ophtalmologiques de la maladie de Horton (artérite à cellules géantes)

Giant cell arteritis, temporal arteritis is a systemic vasculitis, which involves large and medium-sized arteries, especially the extracranial branches of the carotid arteries, in patients above the age of 50. Ischemic complications may involve the eye, orbit, or visual pathway, with blindness being the most feared complication. Visual ischemic complications are observed at least in 25% of patients with giant cell arteritis. Irreversible visual loss is mainly due to acute anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Thus, in any patient above the age of 50 with any manifestation of ocular ischemia, transient or permanent, giant cell arteritis must be considered and ruled out by an emergent targeted investigation and inflammatory work-up. Steroids remain the treatment of choice for giant cell arteritis and must be instituted immediately upon suspicion of the diagnosis, even in the physician's office. The goal is to protect the eye and visual pathways from irreversible blindness or to prevent contralateral disease. Thus, steroid treatment does not constitute a cure for already-incurred visual loss, which will still carry an unfavourable prognosis.