Acquired Color Vision Defects in Retrobulbar Neuritis

We used the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Test to study the incidence of acquired color vision defects in 16 patients with unilateral and and seven patients with bilateral retrobulbar optic neuritis whose visual acuity had recovered to 6/12 (20/40) or better. We recorded the visual-evoked response to a pattern stimulus on the same day. All 30 affected eyes showed an excessive number of errors on Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue testing. The number of errors increased with greater residual optic nerve damage. One false-positive and two false-negative visual-evoked responses were found.