Page 26 - The Indian Optician Digital Edition September-October 2021

LINK FOUND BETWEEN regularly monitored around 1636

MYOPIA AND RRD patients with high intraocular
pressure between February
1994 and December 2008.
A new study has found a link between increased myopia Observations were also taken
levels and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in the after 20 years of follow up.
Netherlands.
The research, which
Dr Redmer van Leeuwen of University Medical Center Utrecht was published in JAMA
and colleagues revealed that RRD is one of the most common Ophthalmology, states that
sight-threatening emergencies in the Western world and can lead initially some of the participants
to severe visual impairment even if its surgery is done on time. were randomly assigned to
receive daily treatment with
According to the report appearing in JAMA Ophthalmology, the eye drops to lower eye pressure
researchers compared results of an earlier study of all patients who while some did not get any
underwent surgical repair for a primary RRD in the Netherlands treatment. After seven years, it
during 2009 and compared them with those for 2016. The data for was evident that the treatment
this was provided by all vitreoretinal surgeons in the Netherlands, was very effective so both
using the same definitions and the same inclusion and exclusion groups were assigned daily eye
criteria as in the earlier study. drops.
Furthermore, the team also assessed data from the prospective In the latest research, the
population-based Rotterdam Study in which participants had researchers assessed which
to undergo an extensive ophthalmological examination. This patients went on to develop
was done to find out if there was any change in the prevalence glaucoma following the
of myopia. This cohort of close to 15,000 people, they revealed, conclusion of the study period.
was typically of the middle-aged and elderly population of the They found that only one in four
Netherlands. participants went on to develop
The study findings showed that there was an overall annual vision loss in at least one eye
incidence of 18.2 per 100,000 person-years in the 2009 study of from glaucoma – a nominal
3000 patients who underwent surgery for RRD as against an figure.
overall annual incidence rate of 26.2 per 100,000 person-years for During the course of the
the corresponding number of patients in 2016 even though the study, the five key factors that
population increased only by 3% in the intervening years, thus could predict if patients were
signifying an increase of 44%. at a higher risk of developing

Within the same duration, there was also a relative increase of glaucoma were age, level of
15.6% of low myopia in people aged 55 to 75 years. For medium and intraocular pressure, thickness
high myopia, the corresponding relative increases were 20.3% and of the cornea, a measurement
26.9%. The researchers concluded that the difference in primary of the appearance of the optic
RRD incidence could be due to increase in myopia prevalence. nerve head, and another
measurement derived from
OCULAR HYPERTENSION standard visual field tests.
TREATMENT STUDY “With only 25% of the
individuals in the study

A new study funded by the National Eye Institute and led by developing vision loss in one or
researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. both eyes after all these years,
Louis, discloses that all patients with elevated eye pressure do not we know now that not all of
require treatment. those patients needed to be
treated,” said Professor Michael
The study, termed as the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, A Kass.

| SEPT-OCT 2021 | 22 OPTHTHALMIC NEWS