No long-term effect on accommodation with multifocal contact lens wear in myopic children
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Key takeaways:
- Accommodative response was reduced in children wearing +2.50 D add multifocal soft contact lenses for myopia.
- Accommodative lag, amplitude and facility were not affected after 4.7 years.
Multifocal contact lens wear may reduce accommodative response in children with myopia, but it does not affect accommodative lag, amplitude or facility after nearly 5 years, according to a study published in Optometry and Vision Science.
“Although results vary across studies, soft multifocal contact lens wear may alter accommodation in children,” Moriah A. Chandler, OD, FAAO, clinical assistant professor at University of Houston College of Optometry, and colleagues wrote. “If soft multifocal contact lenses led to long-term alteration of accommodation, it could potentially affect a patient’s ability to read comfortably and accurately, but there were previously no long-term data to evaluate whether this is true.”
The Bifocal Lenses in Nearsighted Kids (BLINK) study enrolled 294 children with myopia aged 7 to 11 years, who were randomly assigned to wear single-vision, +1.50 D add or +2.50 D add soft contact lenses for 3 years. Participants could then continue in the BLINK2 study, in which all children were fitted for +2.50 D add lenses.
Researchers measured accommodative response (AR) to a 3D stimulus at baseline and annually for 3 years, followed by objective accommodative amplitudes, lead/lag and binocular facility at the BLINK2 baseline visit.
According to results, participants who wore multifocal contact lenses had lower AR than the single-vision contact lens group at 2 weeks, which continued through the 2-year visit. However, at the 3-year visit, the +2.50 D add group had lower AR than both the single-vision and +1.50 D add groups, which had similar AR.
After 4.7 years of contact lens wear and after adjusting for clinic site, sex and age, researchers reported no statistically significant or clinically meaningful differences between treatment groups in accommodative amplitude, accommodative facility or accommodative lag/lead.
“This study shows that although the AR is reduced while children wear +2.50 D add multifocal contact lenses for myopia control, the small reduction in accommodation does not affect accommodative lag, amplitude or facility after almost 5 years of wear,” Chandler and colleagues wrote. “Eye care practitioners prescribing multifocal contact lenses for myopia control should not be concerned about causing long-term effects on accommodation.”
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