Slowing the Progression of Myopia in Children with the MiSight Contact Lens: A Narrative Review of the Evidence

Abstract

Myopia has become a major public health problem in the world due to the increase in its prevalence in the past few decades and due to sight-threatening pathologies associated with high myopia such as cataracts, glaucoma and especially myopic maculopathy. This article is a narrative review of the evidence that currently exists on a contact lenses (CLs) specifically designed to correct myopia and to slow its progression. To contextualise the topic we discuss the different classifications and definitions that have been used for myopia, the current burden of being myopic, and current treatment options to prevent and control its progression. There is evidence that exposure to sunlight reduces the risk of myopia onset and pharmacological treatment with atropine has been shown to be the most effective therapy for controlling its progression, followed by optical interventions such as CL fitting (orthokeratology or CLs specific for myopia control) designed to decrease retinal peripheral hyperopic defocus that seems to be the theory that suggests that axial elongation is driven by this defocus and explains why the eye continues to grow abnormally after emmetropisation and generates myopia. We will especially focus on MiSight CLs. MiSight is a daily replacement soft contact lens that has been clinically proven and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to control the progression of myopia in children. We analyse the optical design of MiSight CLs, as well as the results of the different efficacy and safety studies that led to the approval of the lens by the FDA. We also expose current knowledge gaps, limitations and future directions.

Keywords: MiSight contact lens; Myopia control; Soft contact lens for myopia control.

Fig. 1

Efficacy of soft contact lenses for myopia control (own figure based on data of published articles)

Fig. 2

Power profile of the MiSight CLs. (Ruiz-Alcocer J. Analysis of the power profile of a new soft contact lens for myopia progression. J Optom 2016;10(4):266–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2016.08.003. Reproduced with permission)