What is Refractive Correction

  In some studies, refractive error was found to occur in up to 85% of patients with nystagmus, and some of these patients were able to improve their corrected visual acuity by 6 lines with refractive error correction, an improvement that is of great significance to patients with nystagmus! In terms of astigmatism, and the type of refractive error, nystagmus is dominated by cis-regular astigmatism.  It has been reported in the literature that by refractive correction of patients with nystagmus, it is possible to improve visual acuity by an average of six rows of logMAR. We studied and published an article that by wearing glasses it is possible to improve the child from 4.2 to 4.5, with a statistically significant difference, and such an improvement is a very great improvement for patients with nystagmus who have low visual acuity themselves. Therefore, the most important and earliest treatment for children with nystagmus is refractive correction. For the management of refractive error in children with nystagmus, Scheiman’s recommendation is that refractive correction is needed for children with 1D to 2D hyperopia, or astigmatism greater than 0.5D, or refractive error greater than 0.5D. Other studies have grouped children with nystagmus by age: 1. Children with nystagmus aged 6 months to 2 years with myopia greater than 3.5D, or hyperopia greater than 3D, or astigmatism greater than 3D. Children older than 2 years of age with myopia greater than 2.5D, hyperopia greater than 2D, or astigmatism greater than 2.0D should be treated with refractive correction.  Refractive errors at lower ages and lower diopters should be corrected as much as possible. The main points are: 1. Astigmatism treatment: children with ophthalmoscopy above 12 months of age need all correction for astigmatism greater than 1.0D; below 12 months of age need all correction for astigmatism greater than 2.5D; 2. When the child is older than 4 years of age, all correction is needed for hyperopia higher than +2.0D, myopia higher than -1.0D, and refractive error with a refractive error greater than 1.0D. Based on the above study and our results, we concluded that refractive correction in children with nystagmus can be effective in improving their visual acuity. And for patients without stable gaze, clear object stimulation is especially important, thus our opinion: refractive errors at lower ages and lower diopters should also be corrected early.