Success Rate of Incorporating Corneal Refractive Therapy into 3 Different Ophthalmology Practices.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of orthokeratology in correcting myopia.

Methods: The study took place over three ophthalmology practices, which were trained in fitting corneal reshaping therapy lenses. The patients' age ranged from 9 to 59 years. The patients were split into 5 groups: 9 to 13, 14 to 21, 22 to 37, 38 to 42, 43 to 48, and 49 to 59 years. There were a total of 260 eyes being tested and the manifest refraction ranged from -0.25 diopters (D) to -7.75 D with astigmatism up to 1.50 D. Patients were fit using a calculator slide rule program and also by a diagnostic lens set.

Results: The patient's uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) was improved with 99% achieving visual acuities better than 20/40 and 85% achieved 20/20. There were no significant differences between UCVA of left and right eyes in patients who received bilateral correction (P>0.05). The study showed that women respond to the therapy better than men. The average difference from the target UCVA for women was 0.24, whereas men were off by an average of 0.34 (P<0.05). Only 2 patients, 1 in the 9 to 13 age group and 1 in the 37 to 43 age group did not respond to the therapy.

Conclusion: Orthokeratology is an effective method to correct myopia. Only 1.4% of patients were unresponsive to the correction. There is no difference in the effectiveness of orthokeratology in the right and left eyes, but it does seem to be more effective in women compared with men.