The effectiveness of hyperopia correction by wearing contact lenses in school-age children in the long-term follow-up
Background. Glasses and correction by wearing contact lenses are well tolerated by children with mild to moderate ametropia. In ametropia of high degree, an improvement of monocular visual acuity with a contact lens compared to correction by glasses is 3.8 times higher. Materials and methods. The study included 56 children (112 eyes) aged 6 to 16 years with hyperopic refraction and astigmatism, who used soft silicone hydrogel contact lenses to correct ametropia. In these patients, visual acuity, objective and subjective clinical refraction, axial length of the eye, corneal thickness and diameter, keratometry indicators were investigated, as well as phorometric data (accommodation, vergence, disparity areas of the oculomotor system and their interaction) in the early and late observation periods. Results. When using contact lenses for correction in school-age children with hyperopia and hyperopic astigmatism, after 3 years of observation there was a statistically significant increase in uncorrected visual acuity by 85 % (t = 7.9; p < 0.01), corrected visual acuity by 7 % (t = 7.4; p < 0.01), keratometry indicator in the weakest meridian by 1 % (t = 6.1; p < 0.01), in the strongest meridian by 1 % (t = 8.9; p < 0.01), central corneal thickness by 4 % (t = 4.6; p < 0.01), as well as a decrease in the spherical equivalent by 38 % (t = 3.1; p < 0.01), the amplitude of accommodation by 20 % (t = 5.8; p < 0.01), the negative relative accommodation by 20 % (t = 3.0; p < 0.01), the positive relative accommodation by 18 % (t = 3.5; p < 0.01), excessive accommodative response by 64 % (t = 7.2; p < 0.01), near phoria by 33 % (t = 4.4; p < 0.01), distance phoria by 22 % (t = 2.8; p < 0.01), the accommodation convergence to accommodation ratio by 18 % (t = 3.1; p < 0.01).