Biometric and refractive changes following the monocular application of peripheral myopic defocus using a novel augmented-reality optical system in adults

Abstract

The prevalence of myopia is growing at an alarming rate and is associated with axial elongation of the eye. The cause of this undesirable physiological change involves multiple factors. When the magnitude of myopia approaches high levels, this accompanying mechanical effect increases the risk of developing other clinical conditions associated with permanent vision loss. Prior work has investigated how we may halt or reverse this process of axial elongation associated with myopic progression when we expose the eye to a peripheral myopic defocus stimulus. Specifically, the known, short-term response to myopic defocus stimulation is promising and demonstrates the possibility of establishing more permanent effects by regulating the axial length of the eye with specific defocus stimulation. However, how to directly convert these known, short-term effects into more long-term, permanent changes to effectively prevent these unfavourable physiological and refractive changes over time is yet to be understood. Here, we show for the first time that we can produce sustained, long-term reductions in axial length and refractive endpoints with cumulative short-term exposure to specific myopic defocus stimuli using a novel optical design that incorporates an augmented reality optical system. We believe that this technology will have the potential to improve the quality of vision in mankind.

Active illumination spectacle device slows childhood myopia progression

“…We have previously demonstrated that active stimulation of the peripheral retina with illuminated myopic defocus via a non-wearable benchtop prototype resulted in slowing of myopic eye growth over a period of four months in young adults. 20 For this study, we developed a wearable spectacle device based on the benchtop model and evaluated longitudinal changes to refractive error and axial length in children after six months of part-time use (1.5 hours per day, 5 days per week).…”