Optical and pharmacological strategies of myopia control

Abstract

Recent increases in global myopia prevalence rates have raised significant concerns as myopia increases the lifelong risk of various sight-threatening ocular conditions. This growing public health burden has generated significant research interests into understanding both its aetiology and developing effective methods to slow down or stop its development, methods collectively termed 'myopia control'. The growing body of research has demonstrated benefits of various optical and pharmacological treatments resulting in myopia control management increasingly becoming a part of main stream clinical practice. This review will discuss the peer-reviewed literature on the efficacy of various myopia control interventions including multifocal spectacles and contact lenses, orthokeratology and pharmaceutical eye drops, as well as potential future research directions.

Myopia-Inhibiting Concentrations of Muscarinic Receptor Antagonists Block Activation of Alpha2A-Adrenoceptors In Vitro

“…Pirenzepine has also been tested for the treatment of childhood myopia, with twice-daily applications of concentrations up to 2%; but the results did not support superiority of clinical efficacy of pirenzepine treatment over atropine treatment, [65][66][67][68] and further studies have seemingly been abandoned. 69 Ocular distribution of a single dose of topically applied […”

The effect of the optical design of multifocal contact lenses on choroidal thickness

“…Multifocal contact lenses (Proclear Multifocal “D”; CooperVision, Inc., Fairport, NY, USA) have been shown to efficiently prevent myopia progression up to 50% in children regarding their refractive error development during two years of wear [ 7 ]. These interventions altogether aim to reduce hyperopic defocus, especially on the peripheral retina [ 8 ] As shown in animal studies, full-field and locally imposed hyperopic defocus results in compensatory axial eye growth and thus faster myopia progression [ 9 – 11 ].…”

Optical coherence tomography: seeing the unseen

“…The World Health Organization has recognised that the prevalence of myopia and high myopia are increasing at an alarming rate, such that myopia has now become a major worldwide public health issue. High myopia is associated with significant long‐term risks of vision impairment, from pathologic conditions such as retinal detachment and glaucoma . Using OCT, Moghadas Sharif et al show that ganglion cell layer thinning may lead to visual field defects in highly myopic eyes, with these myopia‐related visual field losses possibly due to lateral retinal stretching.…”

“…This increase in global rates of myopia, to epidemic levels in some parts of the world, has also generated significant scientific and clinical research to better understand the aetiology of myopia, as well as treatment strategies for myopia . There is evidence that the choroid – not just at the macula but throughout the posterior pole and peripheral retina – potentially plays an important role in the regulation of eye growth, myopia and other eye diseases.…”