Repeated Low-Level Red Light Therapy for Myopia Control in High Myopia Children and Adolescents
Scientists Yan Xue, Lipu Cui, Miao Kong, along with their colleagues, conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of repeated low-intensity red light therapy (RLRL). This method has recently become available for controlling myopia in children and adolescents with high myopia. The research was published in the Journal of Ophthalmology.
This was a multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, single-blind clinical trial. Between February 2021 and April 2022, 192 children aged 6 to 16 years were enrolled. Each child had at least 1 eye with myopia of cycloplegic spherical equivalent refraction (SER) at least –4.0 diopters (D), astigmatism of ≤2.0 D, anisometropia of ≤3.0 D, and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 0.2 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution or better. Follow-up was completed by April 2023. Participants were randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to intervention (RLRL treatment plus single-vision spectacles) or control (single-vision spectacles) groups. The RLRL treatment was administered for 3 minutes per session, twice daily with a minimum interval of 4 hours, 7 days per week.
The primary outcome and key secondary outcome were changes in axial length (AL) and cycloplegic SER measured at baseline and the 12-month follow-up visit. Participants who had at least 1 postrandomization follow-up visit were analyzed for treatment efficacy.
This study is among the earliest clinical trials investigating myopia control among children and adolescents with high myopia. Repeated low-level red light (RLRL) treatment slowed AL elongation by 0.41 mm and progression of myopic SER by 0.86 D compared with SVS. However, after 12 months, the adjusted mean AL change of the intervention group still had negative values, and 53.3% of them with >0.05 mm of axial shortening. Overall, our study suggests that RLRL treatment is an excellent solution for obtaining myopia control in children with high myopia, and it is the only existing way to shorten the AL.
The authors plan to conduct further clinical studies to determine whether the observed axial length reduction and regression of spherical equivalent refraction after 1 year of RLRL therapy are temporary or permanent phenomena, as well as whether treatment effects can persist after discontinuation of low-level red light therapy.
For more detailed information about the study, you can refer to the following link:
https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(24)00318-X/fulltext
