Researchers have developed lenses that reduce the progression of myopia in children, according to work presented on Saturday.
It is the dream of all short-sighted people. Waking up in the morning, opening your eyes and… seeing. The curves, the contours, the details. The world as it really is, and not as they perceive it without correction: blurry, shapeless and diffuse. To make this dream come true, myopic people have long been told that the solution is surgery. This was before researchers developed lenses that could reduce myopia – from childhood.
The participants of a clinical trial have been followed for three years to determine the effectiveness of these new kind of lenses. The results of this work were presented on Saturday at the British Contact Lens Association conference in Liverpool.
No side effects
Nearly 150 children aged 8 to 12 years with myopia wore daily soft bifocal lenses every day, aimed at controlling the progression of juvenile myopia. These lenses have areas that alternate between treatment and visual correction.
After three years of wearing, the authors were able to observe that these lenses slowed down the progression of myopia. Thus, this progression was reduced by 59% according to the measurement of the spherical equivalent (effective focusing power of the eye) and by 52% according to the measurement of the axial length of the eye, compared to the group of children. myopic having worn traditional lenses.
The authors note the absence of side effects of this method, compared to other treatments, in particular to the pharmacological therapies in development, an ocular gel in particular.
The prevalence of myopia will explode over the next few decades. Currently, two billion people are affected worldwide, a figure which could reach five billion by 2050.
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