Myopia, Shortsightedness

Myopia - The eyeball is too long.

Myopia, or shortsightedness, occurs when the eyeball is too long. The converging light beams meet before the retina. The image on the retina itself is therefore vague. People suffering from shortsightedness have blurry long-distance vision.

Only light from nearby objects will be refracted in such a way that the image appears clearly on the retina. People suffering from myopia see clearly at short distances.

 To treat myopia, the centre of the cornea is flattened with an excimer laser. The curvature, and thus the refractive power, will be diminished. The Commission for Refractive Surgery gives the following guidelines for laser treatment of myopia:

• LASIK method: to -10dpt
• PRK method: to -6dpt
• LASEK-Methode: to -10dpt