Features

Myopia: Repeated low-level red-light therapy

Bill Harvey hears about a new, light-based myopia management treatment that is proving popular in Australia and likely to make an impact in the UK in the coming years

Myopia will affect more than five billion people by 2050. And we should no longer think of myopia as solely ametropia, though uncorrected refraction itself is a major cause of visual impairment across the world.  

Increasing axial length increases the risk of sight loss through retinal and macular degeneration and disease, cataract, glaucoma, vascular perfusion compromise and optic neuropathy. If the current trend continues, the socioeconomic impact on everybody’s life will be immeasurable. 

  

A range of interventions have been shown to reduce myopic progression. Atropine eyedrops, specially designed spectacles, dual focus contact lenses and orthokeratology lenses are the most common myopia control interventions with approximately 50% efficacy,1 and new data is continually being added to the published body of evidence. 

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