Optics of spectacle lenses intended to treat myopia progression

Abstract

SIGNIFICANCE This is a review of the optics of various spectacle lenses that have been used in myopia control over the last 60 years, with emphasis on approximately the last 15 years. Myopia has become an increasing health problem worldwide, particularly in some East Asian countries. This has led to many attempts to slow its progression in children and reduce its endpoint value. This review is concerned with the optics of spectacle lenses for use in myopia control, from bifocal lenses to multisegment and diffusion optics lenses. Treatments are based on theories of the onset or progression of myopia. These include the hypotheses that eye growth and myopia in susceptible children may be stimulated by (1) poor accommodation response and the consequent hyperopic defocus with near vision tasks, (2) relative hyperopic peripheral refraction, and (3) high retinal image contrast as occurs in urban environments. Using spectacle lenses to slow myopia progression has a history of about 60 years. The review is laid out in approximately the order in which different types of lenses have been introduced: bifocals, conventional progressive addition lenses, undercorrection with single-vision lenses, specialized progressive addition lenses, defocus-incorporated multiple segments, diffusion optics, and concentric bifocals. In the review, some of the lenses are combined with an eye model to determine refractive errors for peripheral vision for the stationary eye and for foveal vision for the rotating eye. Numbers are provided for the reported success of particular designs in retarding myopia progression, but this is not an epidemiological paper, and there is no critical review of the findings. Some of the recent treatments, such as multiple segments, appear to reduce the eye growth and myopia progression by better than 50% over periods of up to 2 years.