EYEBALL SHAPE IN CHILDREN WITH EMMETROPIA AND MYOPIA

In order to determine the eyeball shape, the authors have carried out ultrasonic biometry of its three major parameters, the anteroposterior axis (APA), horizontal diameter (HD), and vertical diameter (VD), and estimated the ratios of these values (APA/HD and APA/VD) in children with emmetropia (234 eyes) and those with slight and medium-grave myopia (660 eyes), aged 7 to 14. The findings evidence a compressed ellipsoidal shape of the eyeball, presenting as a vertical oval, in all subjects with emmetropic refraction, whatever their age. In myopia the eyeball shape transforms, and all the eyeball sizes are increased, but the APA size is growing more rapidly than the rest sizes, and the eyeball acquires the ball shape with a trend to an elongated ellipsoidal shape. The mean APA length in 7-14-year-old children with emmetropia was up to 23 +/- 0.15 mm, whereas in those with the ball shape of the eyeball it was distended.