Ocular axial length in unilateral congenital cataracts and blepharoptosis.

Biometry performed in patients with unilateral dense congenital cataracts and unilateral complete blepharoptosis did not show a consistent elongation of the involved eye. The antero-posterior axis of the visually deprived eye was longer than that in the normal fellow eye in some but shorter or unchanged in other patients. These findings are in accord with the hypothesis gained from monkey experiments that visual deprivation during infancy may deregulate axial growth of the eye. However, unlike in monkeys where axial elongation usually prevails, this effect of visual deprivation is less predictable in humans.