Upon investigating the short-term effects of orthokeratology (OK) in young adults, a team of researchers found that OK improves or maintains accommodative and binocular vision function in myopic patients who achieve good vision with OK. They add that patients with phorias that fall outside normal ranges and/or poor distance accommodative facility may benefit the most from OK.

The researches evaluated 24 myopic patients 18 to 38 years old who were fit with OK lenses in both eyes. Best-corrected distance visual acuity, subjective and objective refractions, corneal topography and a series of binocular vision tests were measured at baseline (BL) before lens wear and then repeated after 28 nights of OK.

Although the team found no significant change in mean distance and near phorias and stereoacuity scores after OK compared with BL, they noted a significant reduction in standard deviation and range of data. They also found that while distance accommodative facility improved after OK, the change was not statistically significant. The researchers add that there was no change in AC/A gradients with ±1 D and ±2 D lenses after OK compared with BL.