BACKGROUND: Pattern- visual evoked potential (PVEP) can reflect the functional status of retinal ganglial cells (RGC) and visual cortex, and is an objective examination for visual pathway function. It is a unique method for objectively examining the optic nerve function of optic ganglion cells.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) on PVEF in the treatment of optic nerve contusion, evaluate the clinical efficacy of NGF, and make an efficacy comparison with vitamin B12.DESIGN: A randomly grouping, controlled observation.SETTING: Department of Ophthalmology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital Affiliated to Hebei Medical University.PARTICIPANTS: Forty patients with optic nerve contusion caused by eye trauma, who received the treatment in the Tangshan Worker Hospital Affiliated to Hebei Medical University between January 2006 and June 2007, were recruited in this study. The involved 40 patients, including 34 males and 6 females,were aged 14 - 59 years. They were confirmed to have optic nerve contusion by ophthalmologic consultation combined with history of disease and orbital CT examination. Informed consents of treatments and detected items were obtained from all the patients. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups with 20 in each:NGF group and vitamin B12 group.METHODS: Conservative treatment was used in the two groups. In addition, patients in the NGF group were intramuscularly injected with NGF solution 18 μg/time, once a day. Those in the vitamin B12 group were injected by the same method with common vitamin B12 of 500 μg combined with vitamin B1 of 100 mg, once a day.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PVEP examination was conducted in all the patients before, one and two weeks after treatment, and latency and amplitude at P100 were detected.RESULTS: Forty patients with optic nerve contusion participated in the final analysis. Before treatment,significant differences in the latency and amplitude at P100 were not found in patients between two groups (P ＞ 0.05). For each patient in the NGF group, the latency of PVEP at P100 was significantly shortened, and the amplitude was significantly increased one and two weeks after treatment as compared with vitamin B12 group (t =2.06 - 2.34, P ＜ 0.05) .CONCLUSION: NGF treatment can obviously improve the visual function of patients with optic nerve contusion. The curative effect of NGF is superior to vitamin B12.