Can a Contact Lens Cure Nearsightedness? Five-Year Clinical Study Testing Corneal Reshaping Therapy as Possible Method to Arr...(oss and also effects vision performance ...),Health

"Correcting and controlling nearsightedness is very important because it potentially contributes to eye disease conditions and problems in academic and social activities, " said Dr. S. Barry Eiden, co principal investigator of the SMART Study, and president of North Suburban Vision Consultants, Deerfield, Ill., one of the clinic sites in the five-year, SMART trial.

The FDA approved corneal reshaping therapy in 2002 to treat myopia. However, as more eye care professionals and patients used CRT, anecdotal information emerged that suggested CRT could not only correct myopia but it could slow the progression of the disorder compared to normal contact lenses or eyeglasses. Two small-scale studies in Hong Kong and at the Ohio State University support this conclusion and a new, multi-site trial (the SMART Study) began in 2007 involving hundreds of U.S. teens and pre-teens.

A year ago, U.S. investigators started their own study of nearsighted children and teens to test whether the anecdotal information was accurate. In the SMART study, half of the subjects are fitted with Boston Equalens II gas permeable contact lens polymer in a reverse geometry/corneal reshaping lens design. The control group subjects are fitted with normal soft contact lenses worn on a daily wear basis.
"The net effect of this contact lens fitting philosophy is to change the cornea shape for the sole purpose of reducing the amount of myopia as measured by change in refraction," said Dr. Robert L. Davis, of Davis Eye Care Associates, Oak Lawn, Ill., co principal investigator of the SMART trial.

Each subject will be followed for five years and be seen by optometric and ophthalmologic researchers at staged intervals throughout each year for evaluat
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