MyoVision™ – The Innovative Spectacle Lenses for Myopia Control

Reducing myopia progression is an important issue, particularly for children in Asia, where nearsightedness is considerably on the rise.

Myopia (nearsightedness) is a visual challenge spanning the globe, occurring across all ages and ethnicities. The root causes of myopia remain a mystery, though recent studies have demonstrated a link between the elongation of the eye and myopia progression. Genetic factors do play a significant role, and Asian children are most likely affected by this visual impairment. ZEISS is introducing the innovative MyoVision™ lenses –indicating a reduction of myopia progression by an average of 30 % in East and Southeast Asian children between 6 and 12 with a history of parental myopia.

We usually associate myopia with getting older. In fact, nearsightedness is usually first diagnosed amongst children at the age of 4 to 6 and continues to progress until the mid-20s. Research indicates that myopia is caused by a combination of “nature” and “nurture”. What is even more distressing is that as many as 60% of myopic kids do have at least one myopic parent. Myopia is inevitable and irreversible and genetic defects are still a tricky matter.

Visual impairments in children on the rise

It is a known fact that myopia most likely affects Asians. Across the Asian continent, myopia is widespread – every second child living in urban populations suffers from myopia. The number of myopes globally is expected to grow from the current 1.6 billion to 2.5 billion by 2020 – an astonishing growth of more than 50 percent.

MyoVision™ – the innovative single vision lens by ZEISS

Until recently, the treatment strategies for myopia have concentrated on merely correcting vision. Latest studies have changed the understanding of myopia: correcting both central and peripheral vision is indicating to be an effective way of slowing down eye growth.

And this is exactly where the new MyoVision™ spectacle lenses set in. Invented and designed in conjunction with Vision CRC, and marketed exclusively by Carl Zeiss Vision, MyoVision™ works with a simple, yet effective technique called Peripheral Vision Management technology – it corrects for sharp central vision while also moving the peripheral image in front of the retina. Its first research shows an indication that it has an effect of sending a signal to the eye to reduce progression of eye elongation.

Indicating a reduction of myopia progression by an average of 30% in East and Southeast Asian children between 6 and 12 with history of parental myopia.(1)

This state-of-the-art solution shows first promising clinical results. In the one-year-long Vision CRC Myopia Control Studies with 210 Chinese children aged 6 to 16 years with myopia, 50 children out of the 210 were given the MyoVision™ spectacle lenses and 50 children were given standard vision lenses. Amongst the Chinese population, an annual progression between 0.60D and 1.00D in young children is actually quite frequent, so it was a good place to test the new MyoVision™ spectacle lenses. The result was remarkable in a statistically significant subgroup of 19 myopic children out of the group of 50 children wearing MyoVision™ lenses, 6 to 12 years old with a history of parental myopia: worn continuously, the lenses show indication of reducing the myopia progression by an average of 30 percent in this subgroup.