Optician India

Welcome to question of the day #165

Eyetools question of the day #165

One of my patients who has myopia asked me if their 6-year-old daughter had pre-myopia. What is that?

Pre-myopia is a concept I first saw in a 2019 journal article. It makes use of data from a study published in 2105.

This definition of pre-myopia that has been put forward:

A refractive state of an eye of ≤ +0.75 DS and > -0.50 DS in children where a combination of baseline refraction, age, and other quantifiable risk factors provide a sufficient likelihood of the future development of myopia to merit preventative interventions.

Preventative interventions being myopia management drugs, multi-focal spectacle lenses, multi-focal soft contact lenses and orthokeratology.

In other words, a patient can be described as pre-myopic if they have a nonmyopic refraction in which a combination of risk factors and the observed pattern of eye growth indicates a high risk of progression to myopia.

The exact refractive error thresholds for pre-myopia vary with age; < +0.75 DS at age 6, ≤ +0.50 DS, at ages 7 to 8, ≤ +0.25 D at ages 9 to 10, and ≤ 0 D at age 11 years.

Children with these magnitudes of refractive error at these ages are in an emmetropic range at an age they shouldn’t be; they should be more hyperopic.

It would be useful to examine the daughter’s refractive error and if she falls into the pre-myopia refractive error range for a 6-year-old then suggest myopia management to the mother.

Support what they do
You can become a member of EyeTools and support them in building a better and more sustainable professional development platform through kindness and appreciation for what them do. It also helps them build a better relationship with you over a longer period of time and you will receive some cool benefits along the way such as Certificates of Completion. To become a member, go to https://eyetools.in/

EyeTools-use it to get even better at what you do. Get the edge and be better than your competitors.Get Frank’s most recent books The Art of Investigating Binocular Vision Anomalies and The Art of Clinical Practice in Optometry for a deeper insight into everyday clinical practice.If you know someone that might benefit from these messages, please forward this to them. We are always looking to bring EyeTools to new people and we could use your help!