The aetiologies of unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy: a clinical analysis on 121 patients

Background and purpose: To strengthen the understanding, increase the early diagnostic rate, and improve the outcome of unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy through the analysis of the 121 patients suffering from this disease in our hospital.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed on the 121 patients with unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy diagnosed at the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from October 2014 to October 2015. The clinical data, such as gender, age, aetiology, clinical features, laboratory tests, and six months follow up reports were analyzed.

Results: The main causes identified in the 121 patients with unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy were intracranial aneurysm (29.8%), diabetic peripheral neuropathy (26.5%), painful ophthalmoplegia (9.9%), and other causes (33.9%). The results from the six month follow up showed that in all the patients, 53.7% were fully recovered, 38.0% improved, and 8.3% had no significant change in symptoms. The results also indicated that the patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy had the best outcome with 71.9% full recovery rate, which was significantly higher than that in the patients with intracranial aneurysm (36.1%, p?<?.05), and idiopathic causes (44.5%, p?<?.05).

Conclusions: Our data indicates that intracranial aneurysm is the leading cause of unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy, and that diabetic peripheral neuropathy has better outcome. Understanding the common causes and clinical features of unilateral oculomotor nerve paralysis is helpful for its early diagnosis and treatment.