Walsh & Hoyt: Traumatic Optic Neuropathies: Pathology

Pringle conducted 174 autopsies on patients who were left unconscious from the time of head injury until death. In 16 cases, blood was found in the optic nerve sheath, leading him to hypothesize that indirect injury to the optic nerve was caused by hemorrhage compressing the optic nerve. These observations are also supported by the work of Hughes who explored six nerves in five patients