Recent Approaches for Preventing and Slowing Myopia Progression

Author(s):

Saif Almutairi* and Khalid Almutairi

Myopia is a common refractive error that continues to affect an increasing number of people worldwide and is expected to impact approximately 50% of the world’s population by 2050. Higher levels threaten vision, potentially leading to visual impairment or blindness. This review aims to examine the most recent approaches for preventing or slowing myopia progression, such as atropine, progressive lens spectacles, bifocal glasses, soft bifocal contact lenses, orthokeratology contact lenses and more outdoor activities. In a few children, orthokeratology has been demonstrated to diminish the elongation of the axial length of an affected eye and slow the progression of myopia at a modest rate. The most effective treatment for the progression of myopia is atropine. Furthermore, there is a link between the prevalence of myopia and the amount of time spent outdoors. The possible prevention of myopic progression using bifocal or Progressive Addition Lenses (PAL), either as spectacles or contact lenses, is also discussed. In addition to the approaches mentioned in this review, various regulatory and technological care options offer promising solutions to manage myopia progression. This review concludes that there is a need to customize treatment approaches for every patient, as revealed in the literature. Likewise, it is necessary to look into the delineation of the long term consequences of such approaches as well as the optimal timing for interventions.