Monocular axial myopia associated with neonatal eyelid closure in human infants.

We studied eight infants who developed unilateral axial myopia associated with neonatal eyelid closure. Clinical findings and ultrasonographic biometric measurements suggested that axial elongation of the eye may occur as a result of neonatal eyelid closure, a finding similar to that for experimental myopia produced in neonatal animals after eyelid fusion. Early treatment of eyelid occlusion in the neonate may prevent axial myopia and subsequent anisometropic amblyopia.