Use of silicone-acrylate contact lenses for the control of myopia: results after two years of lens wear.

Although a number of reports have been published concerning the use of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) contact lenses for the control of myopia, there have been no reports of the use of gas permeable contact lenses for this purpose. In the study reported here, 100 myopic children between the ages of 8 and 13 years were fitted with Paraperm O2 plus silicone-acrylate contact lenses to be worn for a period of 3 years. Lenses were fitted by the alignment method, most lenses having diameters from 8.5 to 9.0 mm. At the end of 2 years 60 subjects remained in the study, 53 of whom were wearing their lenses on a regular basis and the other 7 were irregular wearers. Mean increases in myopia during the 2-year period were found to be 0.28 D for the subjects who wore their lenses regularly and 0.93 D for the irregular wearers, compared to 0.80 D for a group of 31 age-matched single vision spectacle lens wearers. Mean corneal refracting power was found to decrease (the cornea flattened) 0.33 D for the regular wearers as compared to an increase of 0.14 D for the irregular wearers and a decrease of 0.13 D for the spectacle wearers. Mean changes in axial length were an increase of 0.1 mm for the regular wearers, an increase of 0.4 mm for the irregular wearers, and an increase of 0.6 mm for the spectacle wearers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)