A Trial of Bifocals in Myopic Children With Esophoria

Launched by NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE (NEI) · Sep 23, 1999

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

About 25 percent of all persons in the United States are myopic. The most common form of myopia is childhood myopia, which begins after age 6 and progresses rapidly until age 16. Myopia progression results from excessive growth of the eye, primarily by enlargement of the vitreous chamber. Excessive elongation of the eye is a major risk factor for retinal detachment.

Previous prospective studies failed to show that use of bifocals was effective in slowing myopia progression. However, these studies did not separate subjects by near-point phoria before randomization. Retrospective studies by ...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • Boys must have been between 6 and 12 years of age; girls between 6 and 11 years of age. All children must have had at least 0.5 diopters of myopia in both eyes, near-point esophoria, at least 20/25 acuity in each eye, and 40 seconds of stereopsis and must have been free of ocular disease or systemic disease that may have altered refraction. All subjects were willing to wear bifocal spectacle lenses for 30 months.