Etiologic distribution of isolated abducens nerve palsy: Analysis of 807 patients and literature review

Abstract Background and Purpose The etiologies of abducens nerve palsy have shown a large variability among studies. This study aimed to establish the clinical features and underlying etiologies of isolated abducens nerve palsy by recruiting patients from all departments in a referral‐based university hospital. Methods We reviewed the medical records of 807 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of isolated abducens nerve palsy at all departments of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Republic of Korea, from 2003 to 2020. We also compared the proportion of etiology with that of the patients pooled from the previous studies. Results The most common etiology was microvascular ( n = 296, 36.7%), followed by idiopathic ( n = 143, 17.7%), neoplastic ( n = 115, 14.3%), vascular anomalies ( n = 82, 10.2%), inflammatory ( n = 76, 9.4%), and traumatic ( n = 35, 4.3%). Patients were mostly managed by ophthalmologists ( n = 576, 71.4%), followed by neurologists ( n = 479, 59.4%), emergency physicians ( n = 278, 34.4%), neurosurgeons ( n = 191, 23.7%), and others ( n = 72, 8.9%). The proportion of etiology significantly differed according to the age and sex of the patients and the specialties involved in the management ( p < 0.001). Compared to the pooled data from the previous reports, the current study showed a higher prevalence of microvascular cause but a lower occurrence of traumatic and neoplastic causes. Conclusions The results of previous studies on etiologic distribution of isolated abducens nerve palsy should be interpreted with consideration of the demographic features of patients recruited and the specialties involved.