THE USE OF EXCIMER LASER IN UNILATERAL MYOPIA IN CHILDREN

Abstract

Refractive surge1y in chjldren remams controversial. The established management of anisometropic children is correction with spectacles or contact lenses and patching of the sound eye. However, the use of spectacle correction for myopic anisometropia is poorly tolerated and still has significant limitations, especially when the difference in power is greater than 3.00D between the two eyes. For practical purposes, contact lenses are the most realistic modality for conection of significant unilateral myopia and they give more satisfactmy visual results than spectacles. Again, contact lenses are not always well tolerated by children. Children who have myopic anisometropia and refractive amblyopia, and who refuse the conventional therapy of full anisometropic spectacle or contact lens correction, are at the risk of developing greater amblyopia if they are left without treatment. To these patients refractive surgery may be considered as a viable altemative. This study included 40 eyes of 40 patients with refractive amblyopia caused by myopic anisometropia. The age of the patients included in this study ranged from 5 to 10 years with a mean value of 8.45. The conventional therapy for amblyopia (spectacles, contact lens and occlusion therapy) was unsuccessful in all the patients. Failw•e of conventional therapy was due to poor compliance with the use of anisometropic spectacles and/or contact lens intolerance. The goal of surgery was to equalize the refraction between the two eyes, decrease the anisometropia, and help reverse the amblyopia.