Study design and immediate results of combined opto-pharmacological treatment of progressive myopia in children

Eye drops that affect dynamic refraction and pupil width can enhance the effect of optical treatment by forming relative peripheral myopic defocus on the refractogenesis of children with myopia.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of combined optopharmacological effects on the dynamics of central and peripheral refraction, accommodation, visual function, and choroid thickness in children with progressive myopia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 40 children aged 8–13 years with myopia from 1.75 to 6.37 dptr. These children were given glasses forming peripheral myopic defocus for the first time. Of these, 20 children, after 1 month, were prescribed combined eye drops containing 0.8% tropicamide and 5% phenylephrine.

RESULTS: One month from the start of wearing glasses, the monocular visual acuity with glasses was 0.94±0.02. After the eye drop application, the visual acuity with glasses significantly increased to 1.06±0.02 (p <0.01). This was explained by a significant decrease in the usual tone of open-field accommodation (PTA-OP) to +0.01±0.04. A clinically significant (p <0.05) increase in relative accommodation reserves (ZOA) by 0.71 dptr was revealed, and opto-pharmacological effects were not observed on mesopic contrast sensitivity and peripheral refraction. Choroid thickness increased by 4.7%.

CONCLUSION: During the observation period, accommodation tended to normalize, and the thickness of the choroid increased clinically significantly. Further observations are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of combined optopharmacological treatment in comparison with optical exposure.