Myopia (Nearsightedness) Control with Ortho-k

Research Studies on Ortho-k Corneal Refractive Therapy Lenses on  Controlling Myopia Progression

Studies have indicated that Orthokertalogy lenses may be a viable myopia treatment option to slow the progression of nearsightedness in children.

Controlling Myopia (nearsightedness) Progression

Otherwise known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness, myopia is a condition in which your near vision is clear but distant objects appear blurred to an uncorrected eye.  This is due to the eyeball elongating as we grow during early adolescence.  The result is a mismatch between the length of the eye and its optical power causing light entering the eye to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it.

Using iSee Ortho-k corneal reshaping lenses to gently reshape the cornea re-aligns the optical focal point onto the retina allowing patients with prescriptions as high as -10.50 to see clearly all day.  Although the use of iSee Ortho-k corneal refractive therapy lenses are not FDA approved for myopia progression control, there are many studies that suggest that Ortho-k therapy may reduce the progression of myopia(nearsightedness) in many children and adolescent Ortho-k therapy patients.

Myopia Progression Studies

In addition to Ortho-K, corneal reshaping lenses providing nearly immediate results in correcting myopia.  Several studies also indicate that Ortho-K corneal refractive therapy lenses may help prevent myopia from worsening significantly in future.

Traditionally, glasses and conventional daytime contact lenses have been prescribed to correct myopia. However, for children, and many young adults, this correction does not prevent their myopia from worsening over time thus requiring stronger prescription lenses to achieve the necessary level of correction.

Myopia treatment progression studies involving Ortho-k corneal refractive therapy include;

REIM Study (2003). Tom Reim OD,FOAA and colleagues initially published the potential of Ortho-K myopia control in 2003.   This study reported that corneal reshaping patients experienced about a sixty percent reduction in the progression of myopia.

LORIC Study (2005). The Longitudinal Orthokeratology Research in Children(LORIC) the Hong Kong pilot study found a much slower rate of childhood myopia progression and axial elongation (47%) among young progressive myopes who underwent Ortho-K corneal reshaping compared to those who wore eyeglasses.

CRAYON Study (2007). The Corneal Reshaping and Yearly Observation of nearsightedness(CRAYON) study, conducted by Jeff Walline OD,FAAO at Ohio State University, confirmed previous studies that Ortho-K corneal reshaping contact lenses lower rates of myopia progression and axial elongation (57%) (Walline, 2008).

SMART Study in progress. Both the LORIC and CRAYON studies were small in scale. The Stabilization of Myopia by Accelerated Reshaping Technique (SMART) study began in 2009 as large scale five year study.   Interim results have continued to demonstrate the benefits of wearing Ortho-k corneal reshaping to control the progression of myopia in children and teenagers.

CRIMP Study (2010) . Corneal reshaping inhibits myopia progression(CRIMP) is an Australian ten year retrospective study demonstrated control of myopia progression over a ten year time frame.  Again the majority of Ortho-k corneal reshaping contact lens control group patients had a significant reduction in their myopic progression versus the group of patient not using Ortho-k corneal reshaping therapy.