Virus Diagnostics and Antiviral Therapy in Acute Retinal Necrosis (ARN)

Acute retinal necrosis (ARN) is a fulminant necrotizing form of retinitis of viral origin. Without treatment, ARN leads to the irreversible blindness by destruction of the retina and the optic nerve. The clinical observation was first described under the term Kirisawa uveitis (Urayama et al., 1971) while the term acute retinal necrosis was introduced by Young & Bird (1978). The international diagnostic standard criteria were defined by Holland et al. (1994). ARN is a rare disease occurring world-wide in approximately one per 1.5-2.0 million persons per year (Muthiah et al., 2007; Vandercam et al., 2008). The rareness of this disease precludes randomized prospective clinical studies. Most observations are derived from small case series and homogenous international guidelines for therapy are still lacking. A few studies, however, allow statements on the causative agents and therapeutic principles.