We know that ortho K lenses and low dose atropine (0.01%) both can slow down the rate of myopia progression by about 50%. People often wonder whether by combining the two, we can slow down the progression even further.

Here is an article looking at a combo of the two in 73 Chinese children who have very fast myopia progression. They discovered that additional atropine 0.01% did not result in significant difference compared with ortho K lens alone in terms of axial growth.

This is disappointing. However, this study looked at children with fast myopia progression despite using ortho K lenses. Also only a small number of children were evaluated. In addition, this is a retrospective study, meaning authors looked at the data later, rather than a randomized controlled study, so there could be factors stewing the results.

Anyway, we await more studies to see whether the two have synergistic effect.

Reference:

Chen Z, Zhou J, Xue F, et al, Two-year add-on effect of using low concentration atropine in poor responders of orthokeratology in myopic children British Journal of Ophthalmology Published Online First: 11 March 2021. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-317980