DSDO Lenses Reduce Axial Elongation More Than DIMS in Myopic Children

The global surge in pediatric myopia has established it as a significant public health priority, driven largely by environmental shifts such as increased near work and reduced outdoor activity [1, 2]. While traditional single-vision lenses provide refractive correction, they do not address the underlying axial elongation, which is the progressive lengthening of the eye from front to back, that increases the risk of sight-threatening complications in adulthood [3, 4]. Current management strategies include pharmacological agents like low-dose atropine and specialized optical designs such as Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments (DIMS) lenses, which utilize peripheral myopic defocus, a technique that projects light in front of the peripheral retina to signal a slowing of eye growth [5, 6, 7]. Recent meta-analyses of 23 randomized controlled trials involving 13,315 subjects confirm that these specialized lenses significantly reduce axial length elongation by a mean of 0.15 mm (95% CI, -0.20 to -0.09; p < 0.00001) compared to single-vision controls [8, 9]. A multicenter randomized clinical trial evaluating 450 children now provides data on diversified segmental defocus optimization (DSDO) designs, showing a 1-year cumulative myopia incidence of 5.8% in the treatment group compared to 15.3% in the control group (p = 0.02) [10].