What is optic nerve atrophy?
The optic nerve is the place in the back of the eye that sends all the vision messages to the brain. If something happens to it, it stops working. That is called optic nerve atrophy. Atrophy means “worn out.” The eye doctor can look at the optic nerve through the pupil. If the optic nerve is atrophied, it looks pale instead of pink. What causes optic nerve atrophy? Optic nerve atrophy can be caused by many things Sometimes families have optic nerve atrophy because the parents pass it to the children. It can be an inherited eye condition. That means that a baby is born with it. When people have a baby, the baby’s body has many things that the parents’ bodies have. For example, a mother may have curly hair, and her baby may have curly hair just like hers. The father may have brown eyes, and his child will probably have brown eyes, too. But it is possible that two parents who have curly hair could have a baby with straight hair. Two parents who have brown eyes could have a baby who has bl
