Rohit Shishodia

The All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) has issued guidelines to prevent and manage childhood myopia.

The AIOS said that as the research in myopia management is continuously evolving, clinicians must remain well updated with the recent literature. The guidelines for myopia management are based on the current understanding of the disease and are bound to change as new evidence is generated.

“Ophthalmologists play a key role in myopia management and these practice patterns will enable them to provide efficient and standard care by early identification and treatment of myopia,” it added in a statement.

The guidelines emphasise on effect on early onset and progression of myopia, standard definitions of myopia, risk factors for myopia, ocular examination, risk factor identification, management, when to initiate anti-myopia therapy in myopes, selection of treatment strategies, advice and clinical care, analysis of treatment efficacy, treatment duration, non-responders/poor responders, when to stop/change treatment and public health initiatives.

“It is indeed a proud privilege to bring out this National, Expert Based Consensus Statement regarding management of childhood myopia. While there have been many guidelines published by pediatric ophthalmologists from the west, there has been no such practice patterns available for Indian ophthalmologists and what would be the preferred clinical practice for our country. This document hopes to fill this void and provide guidelines best suited in the Indian scenario,” Prof (Dr.) Namrata Sharma, Hony General Secretary, All India Ophthalmological Society.

“Prevention of progression of myopia is a burning issue amongst all and especially the paediatric ophthalmologists. A lot of research is being performed in this field making use of various concentrations of atropine eye drops. Although there are some positive outcomes, however it needs more work in order to establish the use of atropine eye drops as a definitive measure to prevent progression of myopia,” Prof. Rajesh Sinha, Hony, Treasurer All India Ophthalmological Society said.

“The guidelines that we are sending to you are one effort in the direction of handling progression of myopia. I hope it will act as a food for thought for everyone to work in this direction so that in due course of time we will be in a position to make a definitive statement in front of our patients,” he added.