High Myopia Defined And Treatments Available

Many people with myopia can have their vision corrected with eyeglasses. The measurement of that eyeglass strength is called diopter.

Typically, standard myopes will have a diopter of -1 to -4.

What happens is that the eyeball is elongated and the cornea is further from the back of the eye. This causes the patient to have difficulty focusing on objects that are far away.

There is a more serious form of this condition called high diopter myopia.

High myopia describes nearsightedness between 6.00 and 10.00 diopters.

Sometimes this is called pathological myopia, but there is a difference in the two.

We speak of pathological myopia if your eyes show pathological changes, no matter what your eye prescription is. It usually means that the back of the eyeball keeps on growing even after reaching the size common in adults.

High degree myopia will usually stabilise between the age of 20-30 and your eyes can be easily corrected with glasses, contact lenses or refrective eye surgery.

If high myopia gets worse it might have some pretty dire possibilities if not treated properly and early enough.

• Retinal detachment and complete blindness. This is due to the stress placed on the retinal attachment by the elongation of the eyeball.
• Glaucoma - Read more about signs and symptoms of glaucoma here.
• Cataracts
• Tears in the vitreous lining resulting in "floaters". Floaters are sort of like shadows that seem to hover in front of the eye at all times.
• Loss of blood vessels that causes the decrease in production of retinal cells.

Symptoms of high myopia are typically those of myopic patients with:

• eye strain
• squinting
• headaches
• and eye tiredness when reading or driving.

Do you or your child suffer from high myopia? How do you correct it? What kind of treatments do you have experience with? Here you can share your myopia story with others:

Share Your Own Myopia Story!

Alternatives To Glasses And Contacts

LASIK surgery has been researched as an alternative treatment for high myopia with great results. The patients in the study all had prescription glasses higher than a -10 diopter.

After a period of ten years, the results are:

• 42% had vision corrected to within plus or minus 1 diopter.
• 61% were corrected to plus or minus 2 diopter.
• 40% of eyes tested showed an uncorrected post-op acuity of at least 20/40.
• Of all eyes tested, 28% required retreatment.

As with all things medical in nature, major research has resulted in an implantable corrective lens that has had great success rates among highly myopic patients.

These implantable lenses are placed inside the eye chamber between the inmost corneal surface and the iris. These act just as standard contact lenses and can be produced in the specific patient's eyeglass prescription.

These were originated in Europe and have been implanted for at least the last decade with positive results coming in. In September 2004, the US FDA approved the lenses for use in this country.

The implantable refractive lenses apparently have definite optical advantages over LASIK patients.

For one, LASIK surgery has a possibility of wearing off, whereas the implanted lenses do not deteriorate or lose their effect over time. You may want to look into that as an option as it seems to be a fantastic option available for high myopic patients.

Before you commit to surgery, be sure to research all possible side effects that may occur.



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