My 3 year old was diagnosed with leukemia (ALL) in 2007. The steroid (dexamethasone) was one of the drugs involved in the protocol for his treatment. Two weeks into treatment we noticed he had lost vision. His oncologist and several specialists in the vision field could not tell us why.

It was approximately 3 weeks from the time he lost vision when we took him to another pediatric neuro-opthamologist who checked his IOP’s and confirmed elevated pressures in both eyes (almost 40 in both). After determining the vision loss was due to steroid induced glaucoma we were able to continue with the dexamethasone and keep his pressures down with a series of eye drops. Partial vision returned in his left eye but nothing (other than possible light perception) in his right eye.

Where is technology today with as far as optic nerve repair and stem cell research for those who have not had a significant injury such as where the optic nerve was cut or severely damaged. In my son’s case, all components of the eye and optic nerve are intact just damaged due to the extended time of elevated IOP’s.