The Effect of 0.01% Atropine Eye Drops on the Ocular Surface in Children for the Control of Myopia-The Primary Results from a Six-Month Prospective Study

Jingyi Cheng; Yujing Yang; Xiehe Kong; Li Zeng; Zhi Chen; Jianjiang Xu; Chaoran Zhang

doi:10.2147/TCRM.S265945

The Effect of 0.01% Atropine Eye Drops on the Ocular Surface in Children for the Control of Myopia-The Primary Results from a Six-Month Prospective Study

Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2020 Aug 10:16:735-740. doi: 10.2147/TCRM.S265945. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jingyi Cheng^#^{1

2

3}, Yujing Yang^#^{1

2

3}, Xiehe Kong⁴, Li Zeng^{1

2

3}, Zhi Chen^{1

2

3}, Jianjiang Xu^{1

2

3}, Chaoran Zhang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory of Myopia, Ministry of Health (Fudan University), Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Visual Impairment and Restoration (Fudan University), Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of 0.01% atropine eye drops on the ocular surface in children for the control of myopia.

Methods: A total of 72 participants were recruited for this prospective study. Prior to and after 1, 3, and 6 months of 0.01% atropine administration, an ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionnaire was obtained, Keratograph 5M was used for the measurement of the tear meniscus height (TMH), noninvasive keratographic tear film break-up time (NK-BUT, the first keratographic break-up time, [NK-BUT_first] and the average keratographic break-up time, [NK-BUT_ave]), bulbar redness (BR), meiboscore (MS), and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) was used to calculate the inferior tear meniscus area (TMA).

Results: After using the 0.01% atropine eye drops for 1 month, 9 subjects complained of discomfort immediately after administration, but this quickly subsided, and 1 subject was temporarily dazzled. All the ocular surface symptoms were mild and occurred rarely. After 3 months, these complaints no longer occurred. Compared with the baseline values, the OSDI scores (0.08 ± 0.28), values of TMH (0.23 ± 0.04 mm), TMA (0.0420 ± 0.0444 mm²), NK-BUT_first (9.39 ± 5.25 s), NK-BUT_ave (10.49 ± 4.94 s), BR (0.63 ± 0.37), and MS (0.89 ± 0.70) did not change significantly after 6 months of 0.01% atropine eye drop administration (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: In this 6-month prospective study, no side effects were observed on the ocular surface after using 0.01% atropine in children.

Keywords: 0.01% atropine eye drops; children; myopia control; ocular surface.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology Foundation (Grant No.19441901000). The sponsor and funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research.