Does Overcorrecting Minus Lens Therapy for Intermittent Exotropia Cause Myopia?
Background Overcorrecting minus lens therapy has been used as a treatment for intermittent exotropia. It is based on the principle that an exotropic deviation will be decreased by stimulating accommodative convergence with additional minus power in spectacles. Because excessive accommodation has been implicated as a cause of myopia, there is theoretical concern that overcorrecting minus lens therapy for exotropia may cause myopia. Objective To investigate the effect of overcorrecting minus lens therapy for exotropia on the progression of myopia. Design A retrospective chart review. Subjects and Methods Seventy-four patients with intermittent exotropia were treated with overcorrecting minus lens therapy for at least 6 months (6-month treatment group), and a 34-patient subset of them received overcorrecting minus lens therapy for 5 years (5-year treatment group). The mean change in refractive error (spherical equivalent of the fixing eye) of these 2 groups 5 years after initial examinati
