The prevention and treatment of myopia in schoolchildren from grade 1 to grade 10 by restoring the ocular accommodation function

Abstract

Purpose: to evaluate long term effectiveness of a method of restoring the accommodation function of the eye and preventing the onset and progression of myopia and to propose ways to overcome medical requirements that are difficult to meet.

Material and methods. The method consisted in prolonged installations of 1 % tropicamide eye drops and permanent optical correction that corresponded to manifest refraction. 48 schoolchildren aged 7–18 with initial myopia or signs of high risk myopia onset were followed up. The subjects were divided into 2 groups of 24 people each. Group 1 consisted of children who followed medical prescriptions and group 2 consisted of those who did not. The two groups were further subdivided into two subgroups. Subgroup 1A included 12 children with the initial positive cycloplegic refraction up to +1.0 D; subgroup 1B included 12 children with the initial negative cycloplegic refraction from -0.5 D. Subgroup 2A (12 children) had negative cycloplegic refraction who regularly failed to receive treatment (optical correction, eyedrop instillations, medical checkups), and subgroup 2B (12 children) had negative cycloplegic refraction who received practically no treatment for myopia. Regular checkups took place 2–3 times a year for 10 years and included measuring visual acuity, manifest and cycloplegic refraction by skiascopy or subjectively, as well as measuring relative accommodation reserve (RAR) according to the author’s own technique. The treatment envisaged permanent optical correction in accordance with manifest refraction until the age of 18 years, combined with courses of tropicamide 1 % instillations for 1 to 3 months two to three times a year.

Results. In group 1A, myopia was prevented in all subjects. In group 1B, the progression stopped after several years of treatment. In subgroup 2A and especially subgroup 2B, myopia progressed, over the 10-year follow-up period reaching the figures of 2.5 and 3.5 D, respectively.

Conclusion. The long-term efficiency of the proposed method applied to schoolchildren from grade 1 to grade 10 was confirmed. Ways to overcome the difficulties of following medical requirements were proposed.