Abstract
Purpose :
To explore the effects of long-term usage of atropine 0.01% eye drops on spherical and cylindrical refractive errors in myopic Chinese children.
Methods :
This study was a single-center randomized clinical trial. Children with myopia less than -6.0 D and refractive astigmatism (RA) less than - 2.0 D were enrolled and randomized to receive atropine 0.01% once nightly with single vision lenses or simply wear single vision lenses, then followed up every three months. Cycloplegic refraction and ocular biometric measurement of axial length and corneal curvature were obtained. The magnitude and direction of RA, corneal astigmatism (CA), and internal astigmatism (IA) were also evaluated during treatment.
Results :
A total of 119 eyes (69 eyes in the atropine group and 50 eyes in the control group) were included in the final analyses at the 9-month visit. The atropine-treated eyes showed significantly less progression of myopia than those in the control eye (spherical equivalent: -0.35 ± 0.33 D vs. -0.56 ± 0.49 D, P = 0.001 and axial length: 0.20 ± 0.19 vs. 0.33 ± 0.19 mm, P < 0.001). Compared with the control eyes, a statistically significant increase of RA was observed in the atropine-treated eyes (-0.14 ± 0.29 D), which was mainly attributed to the increase of CA (-0.17 ± 0.26 D), instead of a minor decrease of IA (0.02 ± 0.32 D).
Conclusions :
Atropine 0.01% is effective for preventing the progression of myopia and has potential effects on increasing refractive astigmatism in myopic Chinese children over 9 months of treatment.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.