Optic neuritis in inflammatory bowel disease.

It is not unusual for various ocular diseases to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease. Ocular involvement includes the inflammatory entities of keratitis, conjunctivitis, episcleritis, orbital pseudotumor, iritis and neuroretinitis , as well as those states in which the etiology remains undefined, i.e., scleromalacia perforans, peripheral corneal ulceration and furrow, retinal artery occlusion, and optic neuropathy. We report five cases of optic neuropathy associated with ulcerative colitis to emphasize that this may be the sole ocular manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease.